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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26158258">Holding On</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cerdic519/pseuds/Cerdic519'>Cerdic519</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The British Revolution [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Captain America - All Media Types, Winter Soldier (Comics)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>17th Century, Army, Battle, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, England (Country), English Civil War, F/M, Family, Friendship, Gay Sex, Inheritance, London, Love, M/M, Minor Character Death, Nobility, Northumberland, Oxfordshire, Parliament (UK), Pining, Politics, Religion, Royalty, Scheming, Scotland, Secrets, Servants, Sieges, Stucky - Freeform, Teasing, Thirty Years War, War Crimes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 12:55:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>28,973</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26158258</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cerdic519/pseuds/Cerdic519</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>October 1642 to November 1643.<br/>The advantage is mostly with the king in the first year of major fighting, but he fails to make it pay against his often divided enemies. Parliament loses its leader in John Pym but manages to stay in the fight (just) and after the first battle fought at Newbury the war seems to be going nowhere fast. Also Luke gets married, which means – gulp – there will soon be gra.... children of children for a certain nobleman!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, minor Thor/OMC</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The British Revolution [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1809640</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Contents</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/achuislemochroi/gifts">achuislemochroi</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/tafizgurl/gifts">tafizgurl</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><span class="u">A.D. 1642 (continued)</span><br/>
<i>69. Edgehill</i><br/>
<i>70. Turning At Turnham</i> </p><p><span class="u">A.D. 1643</span><br/>
<i>71. Winter Woes</i><br/>
<i>72. Queen's Move</i><br/>
<i>73. Bodies For Guns?</i><br/>
<i>74. Tired And Emotional</i><br/>
<i>75. A Strange Departure</i><br/>
<i>76. Skirting The Issue</i><br/>
<i>77. Pressing Matters</i><br/>
<i>78. Treachery And Torment</i><br/>
<i>79. Fake News</i><br/>
<i>80. Backs Against The Wall</i><br/>
<i>81. Divine Intervention</i><br/>
<i>82. Underestimation</i><br/>
<i>83. The Final Deal</i><br/>
<i>84. The One With The Wedding</i></p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLII-MDCXLIII</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Edgehill</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The two armies clash on the slopes of Edgehill in Warwickshire, some twenty-five miles north of Stalwarton, and far from being the decisive battle everyone had hoped for it is pretty much a draw. In the aftermath Stephen discovers that his enemy Anthony Stark is still striving to cause trouble for him, but also that for now at least the matter is in hand. Meanwhile Luke needs to practice leaving a room more quickly!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>October 1642</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Luke shook his head as he entered the room.</p><p>“Your father is staying up there with him?” Edward asked politely.</p><p>The older boy took care before answering.</p><p>“Uncle Jamie once told me that a soldier going back to battle after time away often suffers from some sort of shock”, he deflected. “He said that the mind always tries to play down the bad things involved, so seeing them first-hand again can come as a jolt.”</p><p>Edward nodded understandingly.</p><p>“That is good”, he said. “I like your uncle but I know that families can be complicated.”</p><p>Luke winced as he thought of the two men not even having the decency to wait for him to leave the room before the clothes had started coming off (and he had even seen his own father still wearing that damn harness!). It probably served him right for going after them to give his parent the letter that he had dropped in his eagerness; he really should have known better.</p><p>“Do I not know it!” he sighed.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>October 1642</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Some little time left, what little remained of Stephen Roger Amerike was coming down from one of the most thorough fuckings he had ever had in an impressively long list. Jamie had warned him before coming that soldiers often wanted to work off their angst sexually after a battle, and that on his return to Stalwarton he might be a little rough.</p><p>And the Atlantic Ocean might be a little wet! Incredibly even his war-weary soldier had stopped while poised over him and asked if he wanted to desist, but Stephen, his mouth as ever controlled by his lower brain, had told him to have at it. Boy, had he had at it!</p><p>“Essex sent me and some scouts to keep tabs on the king as he moved to Oxford”, Jamie explained, still thrusting away inside his lover.</p><p>“Mwah?”</p><p>“I had better tell you about the battle”, Jamie grinned, “especially as you cannot answer me back any time soon.”</p><p>Stephen would have glared at him, but that would have involved movement. Instead he just moaned.</p><p>“As I feared, Essex did not have any scouts out when I reached him at Worcester”, Jamie began. “The first lot I sent out came back with the news that the king was past us and moving on London; you have never seen so many headless chickens in your life! We gave chase and caught them near Kineton, about thirty miles north of here. Essex was a bit alarmed that, contrary to what he had been told, they pretty much matched us in numbers, but he lined up for battle and we knew they would fight; no leader with any sense would advance on London with a large enemy army behind him.”</p><p>“The king has not shown much sense so far”, Stephen said, quite proud at having managed a whole sentence even if it did hurt his throat. Then Jamie thrust even deeper into him and he groaned.</p><p>“I had the perspective glass you gave me”, Jamie said seemingly determined to work the Buckmaster even deeper into the nobleman, “so I could make out Jay – Sir Jacob Astley – doing his Soldier's Prayer¹ thing as he does before every battle. Some of their commanders looked very fine but I thought their foot poor.”</p><p>Stephen just nodded, then winced. Even that hurt!</p><p>“As I feared, their cavalry is far better than ours”, Jamie said. “Prince Rupert's men in particular swept our left wing off the field, but he was unable to prevent them haring off in pursuit. That is the big disadvantage of his new tactics in using his light cavalry like the German leaders used their heavy ones; an excited horse at full charge is pretty much unstoppable, especially when chasing a fleeing target. If he had been able to control his men he would likely have won the day for his uncle.”</p><p>“Our own foot?” Stephen asked, his eyes watering as his lover continued to pound away inside of him.</p><p>“Some units broke but luckily most of them held”, Jamie said, “and Essex had had the sense to keep a small cavalry reserve. They charged the king's foot and battered them about badly. We also had the advantage of the ground and may have won had not Rupert managed to bring a few of his men back and rebalance things. All in all a draw, though I suppose it is a strategic victory for the king as he can advance on London while Essex has had to withdraw north-east to lick his wounds.”</p><p>Stephen detected his unusual tone of voice there, which given what the bastard was still doing to his insides he thought quite impressive.</p><p>“And?” he pressed.</p><p>Jamie pushed his legs back even further and pounded furiously into his lover, who to his embarrassment found himself calling for him to do it even harder. It seemed like several aeons before the sex-mad soldier spoke again.</p><p>“The king should have made a dash for London”, he said. “As I said a long war benefits us with our greater income, especially now we have the Navy. But he decided to secure Banbury then move to make Oxford his capital. We shall have the pleasure – and cost! – of him as a near-neighbour for some years, I am afraid. I have left my second-in-command watching him and he will shadow him to London; hopefully Essex will get there first. If he does not....”</p><p>He trailed off, but Stephen knew full well what he meant. The parliamentary cause would be like him – well and truly fucked!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>November 1642</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Luke felt entitled to roll his eyes as what was left of his father limped slowly into the room.</p><p>“Is Uncle Jamie fully 'recovered' from his great battle?” the boy asked innocently.</p><p>His father glared at him.</p><p>“He might be!” he growled. “Many more battles like that and you will come into your inheritance sooner rather than later!”</p><p>“Good old Uncle Jamie!” Luke said brightly. “So very thorough. <i>He always pushes through in the end.</i>”</p><p>The nobleman scowled at his seriously unfunny son, then winced. Complicated facial manoeuvres were still out, apparently.</p><p>“You had a letter from London, Father”, the boy said brightly (and far too loudly, in Stephen's opinion). “Mr. Pym expects the king to start his advance any day now; Prince Rupert has tested the defences of Aylesbury but he was beaten off.”</p><p>“Soon no poor man with property in that area will be safe”, Stephen said, sitting down very, very carefully.</p><p>“Why only the poor men?” his son asked.</p><p>“Because if the king did it to rich men like me, word would get around and his supporters would desert him”, Stephen sighed. “Poor people have no such luck.”</p><p>“Will Uncle Jamie be going to London in order to help with its defences?” Luke asked.</p><p>“Probably”, Stephen sighed. “I am dreading that.”</p><p>“The king marching on the capital?” Luke asked.</p><p>“No”, Stephen said. “Jamie coming back after another battle!”</p><p>His possibly-son snickered at that. Stephen wondered – just how did one set about disinheriting someone in this day and age?</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>November 1642</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“Parliament and the king are holding 'talks about talks'”, Stephen told his son a few days later. “Not that they will come to anything now both sides think that they won at Edgehill.”</p><p>“Indeed”, his son said with a smile. <i>“Someone</i> scored a very solid victory there!”</p><p>Stephen looked suspiciously at his son. The nobleman may have been in arguably a less than totally put-together state these last few days after....  That, but the boy still had no right to disrespect his elders. Or to have put that large pink cushion on the nobleman's chair, no matter how good it felt.</p><p>His musings were interrupted by Chatton bring him a letter. He looked up at the young steward in surprise, then winced. </p><p>Rapid body movements were, it seemed, still inadvisable.</p><p>“Beg pardon sir”, said some annoying Caledonian who was one smirk away from being sent back to Scotland on foot, “but someone delivered this to our cottage.”</p><p>Stephen looked at him on confusion.</p><p>“And it is not for you?” he asked.</p><p>“The young man who did it came very early”, Chatton grinned, “not unlike Fray as it happens!”</p><p>Stephen just shook his head at him. </p><p>“And?” he said.</p><p>“It is addressed to Mr. Buchanan, sir.”</p><p>How odd, Stephen thought. Why would anyone take a letter for his lover to one of the estate cottages when they were within sight of the hall?</p><p>Chatton bowed and withdrew.</p><p>“You might as well open it, Father”, Luke said. “Uncle Jamie would not mind – you have no secrets from each other, I am sure!”</p><p>Thinking again of the many advantages of disinheritance, Stephen opened and read the letter. His eyebrows shot up.</p><p>“What is it?” his son asked. “Bad news?”</p><p>“It is from the Prince of Wales, who you and Jamie rescued that time in London”, he said. “He says that one Captain Anthony Stark is making a name for himself among Prince Rupert's men and has been recommended by the prince for some sort of reward. He did particularly well at Edgehill where he was surrounded by the enemy foot at one point but beat them off almost single-handed. He is now being referred to by his preferred nickname of 'The Iron Man'.”</p><p>“He sounds dangerous, if a bit too full of himself” Luke said. “If he gets any idea of the arrangement that you have with Uncle Aidan, all hell will break loose!”</p><p>“I only wish that young Eddie could grow up faster”, Stephen sighed. “The sooner he is safely married and has a few heirs in place, the better. The prince also advises me that Captain Stark told his master that our estate could produce much more in funds than had been given to the king, so the boy took the opportunity to come and see for himself and is headed back to tell his father that for once his nephew was wrong.”</p><p>“We are lucky to have the young prince on our side”, Luke said. “Or at least as a friend in the enemy camp.”</p><p>“I fear that this war will get worse before it gets better”, Stephen said. “The king will be marching on London any day now; Jamie is sure from his reports that Essex is there or almost there, so we may have our second major battle soon enough.”</p><p>“And then hopefully Uncle Jamie can come home and 'celebrate' with you!” said someone who was in severe danger of not making it to adulthood.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLII</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) “O Lord, Thou knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget Thee, do not thou forget me". A common prayer among soldiers at the time.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLII</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Turning At Turnham</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>To the surprise of precisely zero people the peace talks get nowhere and the king advances on London – but the city is ready for him and he is forced to withdraw. Both sides look to solidify their grips on a base for future operations, although as a grim stalemate ensues at least Stephen has his lover back. And equally importantly, Luke has some good ear-plugs!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>November 1642</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen heaved a huge sigh of relief as he read his lover's latest letter.</p><p>“Good news, sir?” Edward asked.</p><p>“Mostly very good”, Stephen smiled. “The king has withdrawn from London. He brought his army as far as Turnham Green which Jamie says is about six miles west of the city, but he found a force twice his size waiting for him. Most of it was poorly-armed Londoners ready to defend their city with whatever they had to hand, but the king seems to have decided not to risk a battle and after a short artillery duel he retreated.”</p><p>“You said mostly, father”, Luke pointed out (Stephen was rapidly coming to the opinion that the boy was too sharp for his own good, let alone smirking far too much when his father came down on certain mornings in an arguably less than pristine state). “Why?”</p><p>“Talks were being held up to two days before the encounter", Stephen said, "although as we had all known they would, they got nowhere. However the king's men then attacked the town of Brentford while the truce was still in effect. The town was overrun and some of our men captured; that breach of truce may have been why so many Londoners came out against him.”</p><p>“Uncle Jamie was not at Brentford?” Luke asked worriedly.</p><p>“Luckily he was organizing the show of strength at Turnham”, Stephen said. “The king has however captured John Lilburne who was leading a unit there, so it will be interesting to see what he does with him.”</p><p>“I have heard of him, sir”, Edward said. “A decidedly outspoken young man.”</p><p>“Six years younger than you, Father”, said some irritating personage who was pushing his luck far too often lately. </p><p>Stephen glared at his son.</p><p>“He was a constant goad in the king's side in the run-up to war”, he said, “and being both pilloried and whipped somehow did not stop him getting his works printed and out on the streets. He is something of a Puritan and I can see parliament having the same troubles with him one of these days – if he survives the king's displeasure.”</p><p>His son looked sharply at him.</p><p>“There is something else in this”, he said shrewdly. “What is it, sir?”</p><p>Annoying and sharp, Stephen thought wryly. But he got the latter from his father, obviously.</p><p>“The king threatened to have Freeborn John mutilated or possibly even executed”, he said grimly. “Pym responded with a note saying that any actions meted out to prisoners of war like that would be copied by our side – <i>no matter how high said prisoner might be.</i></p><p>Both boys saw at once what that meant.</p><p>“They would never do such a thing to the king, sir, surely?” Edward asked.</p><p>“I am sure that Pym would not”, Stephen said, “but if anything happens to him and the more extreme members on our side seize control of things – who knows? As Jamie said, war has few if any certainties.”</p><p>“At least Uncle Jamie will be coming home for winter”, Luke smiled. “That is one certainty.”</p><p>He looked pointedly at his father, who blushed as he too was thinking of a second certainty that would most definitely follow the first. A very long and hard certainty!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>November 1642</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Unfortunately Jamie's homecoming (and the rest!) was set to be delayed. A second letter arriving only two days after the first brought the worrisome news that the king was attempting to send an army into Sussex to seize the  critical ironworks in the county, and the soldier was rushing south on order to organize resistance there. Stephen fretted but there was little that he could do except to visit St. Giles daily and pray as hard as he could.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>December 1642</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>To add to Stephen's woes the snow came early that year, choking the roads and likely delaying his lover's return even further. But fortunately his soldier brave always made sure of keeping his masters in Westminster informed and in the middle of the month a letter was forwarded to Stalwarton that made everyone breathe more easily.</p><p>“Jamie has helped the Sussex parliamentarians win a victory at a place called Muster Green¹”, Stephen said with relief. “The king's men were marching on Lewes but they have been driven back to their base at Chichester. Even better, Sir William Waller² is being sent to clear them out of western Sussex so that Jamie can come home.”</p><p>“That will be good”, Luke said. “And fresh from <i>two</i> battles this time. I am sure that you and he will have a lot to 'talk' about, sir.”</p><p>Stephen was fast becoming of the opinion that his son had one of the most annoying smirks in all England! Especially when the brat was right!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>December 1642</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“You should have seen them run!” Jamie grinned as he continued with what were his apparent attempts to make Stephen Roger Amerike the first pregnant man. </p><p>Stephen groaned, only partly glad for the new leather straps which made rather irregular use of the four posts around the bed to keep his legs raised skywards while his lover took his pleasure. Time and again!</p><p>“Waller is sure he can drive them out of Sussex and possibly even much of Hampshire”, Jamie went on, somehow thrusting even harder as his lover moaned in delirium. “Chichester has no fortifications so it should be easy enough to take, although I doubt he can take Winchester. Or at least not its castle³; I have seen the place and the walls would stand a great assault.”</p><p>Stephen's own walls were making their own assaulted status felt as he gasped for breath. His eyes watered as he stared blearily at his lover. Once again Jamie had shown just how true a love he really was by placing a small picture next to his head on the pillow; all he had to do what knock against it and the insatiable Scotsman would stop.</p><p>Except that Stephen did not want him to stop! This was Heaven, whatever his  body parts said!</p><p>“I have to say how attached I am becoming to that son of ours”, the soldier said and he pushed even deeper into his lover. “Taking Edward down for a day in Oxford just as I arrived so I could make you scream as loudly as you like to an empty house.”</p><p>One of the unusual things about the Hall was that it lacked servants quarters, the staff who worked there living either in the village or across the river in Charlton. That also meant that Stephen could give them the occasional day off provided they sorted out food for them beforehand. Or as some snarky son of his had put it yesterday, 'removing all the witnesses'!</p><p>“I still cannot believe that even Charles Stuart was duped by that rag-tag army we sent against him at Turnham, though”, Jamie said as he finally withdrew and began applying the cooling unguent (someone who was not a Scotsman may or may not have cooed with pleasure at this point in the proceedings). “There were some who said we should try to hide the civilian element but I knew that the idea of attacking such people would not appeal to a king who still thinks that despite the way he has treated them in the past, he might still win over the people of London.”</p><p>“Can he?” Stephen managed, quite proud at having finally managed speech. “Oh that is so damn good!”</p><p>Jamie grinned and worked the unguent in even deeper. He pressed hard on his lover's prostate but after Lord alone knew what number of orgasms, no way was he getting any sort of reaction except another pleasured moan.</p><p>“He thinks that he can”, he said, finishing his ministrations. “There are some Royalist sympathizers in the city but not enough to do anything. As long as he chooses to delude himself, let him. All well and good as far as we are concerned.”</p><p>He gently undid the straps that were keeping Stephen's legs raised, then eased him down to lie on his side before slipping in behind him. The nobleman was not surprised when his lover slid easily inside him; he might not be sitting down for the rest of the year but.... wow! Just... wow!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>December 1642</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>The end of the year should have been a time for rejoicing despite the heavy rains, especially for Jamie and Stephen as the former had received good news from Hampshire. The old Saxon capital (but not its castle) had indeed fallen to Waller and Sussex was saved.</p><p>Unfortunately there was a rather more pressing issue to hand. To wit, the idiotic military personage currently dripping away in the Hall's entranceway.”</p><p>“I am not sure why you were stupid enough to think that your men stealing my workers' coal supplies at the start of winter might not have been appreciated, sir”, Stephen said shortly. “When a group of armed ruffians changes into the coal-store and starts taking whatever they want, my estate workers are fully entitled to defend themselves.”</p><p>Captain Robin Lane of the King's Cavalry sniffed disdainfully.</p><p>“One of my men was shot, sir”, he said, somehow contriving to look down his nose at Stephen. “By this personage here. Shot.... down below.”</p><p>“Believe me, captain”, Jamie said with a sour smile, “if I had been aiming for that then his wife would not be being bothered by his attentions any time this side of ever!”</p><p>Stephen just about managed not to laugh at that.</p><p>“We have supplied the king with various items as well as money for his war effort”, he said, “so when some of his men decide to just help themselves then they must live with the consequences.”</p><p>“Very gingerly in one fellow's case”, said someone who was no help at all.</p><p>“I shall be having Words with His Majesty over this”, the captain sniffed. “Good day, sir.”</p><p>He turned and departed. Both men stared after him.</p><p>“And that is why the king will lose support among the common people”, Jamie sighed. “If he were a better monarch they would support him or even enlist in his armies, but this sort of thing will make them his enemies. And for that, he will sooner or later rue the day.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLII</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) Now subsumed in the amorphous commuter blob that is Haywards Heath.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>2) Sir William Waller (b. 1597). One of parliament's leading commanders who thought that he, not the Earl of Essex, should be THE leading commander. The member for Andover, we shall be seeing him again.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>3) Built in 1067, the castle was one of the last places to fall to the parliamentarians in 1646, and was demolished on the orders of Cromwell in 1649. Only the Great Hall which had been added in 1235 survived.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLII</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Winter Woes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>With winter making large-scale campaigning impossible except to those who wish to end their days having drowned in mud, the first two months of the year sees both sides striving to seize strategically important forts. What little fighting there is generally goes ill for parliament, while Stephen discusses wedding plans with a son who still smirks far too much whatever dreadful state his father may or may not be in.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>January 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Luke sighed when he saw his father's face as the latter sat down at the breakfast-table.</p><p>“All right, Uncle Jamie”, he sighed. “What did you do <i>this</i> time?”</p><p>The soldier grinned.</p><p>“Aunt Agnes came over with one of her dreadful stories”, he said. “This one was about King Edmund Ironside, who was assassinated on the toilet when someone sneaked in with sharp arrow and shoved it right up.....”</p><p>He stopped quickly. The look that he was getting from the boy suggested that he might not live to see his next battle!</p><p>“She came here from Wolfstown?” the boy asked. “That is a long way just to traumatize everyone, even for her?” </p><p>“She was heading to Oxford to complain to the king about his men bothering her household”, Jamie said. </p><p>“Perhaps she might read him one of her stories, then”, the boy said. “That could end this conflict quickly, with the king driven insane!”</p><p>Jamie chuckled.</p><p>“But why did father let you read him any of her latest horror?” Luke asked. “Any sane man would run a mile after the first few words.”</p><p>The soldier smirked.</p><p>“Your father was, ahem, a little tied up at the time.”</p><p>Luke went pale. Suddenly – and rather too late – he understood just why his father was so sore. Well, sore in that sense too....</p><p>He would be eighteen later this year and safely married off. Perhaps Anne might like a cottage in the far-off Shetland Isles..... or in one of those New World colonies..... <i>or on Mars!</i></p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>January 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Jamie had left to help assess the parliamentarian positions in the North, where things were still fairly balanced between the two sides but the imminent return of the Queen might change that. With the typicality of such things, news from his destination reached Stalwarton the day after his departure.</p><p>“We have taken Bradford in Yorkshire”, Stephen told his son. “A small place but an important one; along with our recent capture of Leeds it denies the king full control of the West Riding wool trade, which he needs even more now that he does not have the Navy.”</p><p>“Uncle Jamie did say that this war might well come down to resources”, Luke said. “Does he say anything about the queen?”</p><p>“He fears that even with the Navy, we may not be able to stop her reaching England”, Stephen sighed. “There are so many places that she could aim for and we cannot cover them all, plus the Dutch are reportedly prepared to escort her across. I fear that her arrival may cause some who have thus far remained neutral to declare for the king.”</p><p>“Uncle Jamie said that too”, Luke said. “He is so clever.”</p><p>Stephen narrowed his eyes at the son. He was of course far above being jealous that his own son held his lover in such high esteem and that looked suspiciously like another smirk, damn the boy!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>January 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>I have received a letter from Captain Cromwell”, Stephen told his son a few days later. “It concerns your forthcoming marriage.”</p><p>“He has not changed his mind?” Luke asked anxiously.</p><p>Stephen was strongly tempted to tease his son by hesitating over that, but he was above such things. He may however have coughed and taken a while to clear his throat.</p><p>“He accepts that she can move in with you here until this whole conflict is sorted out”, he said, “by which time hopefully this contention will be sorted. There is a house down in Hampton that is available, although it will need work before you can move in.”</p><p>“I can do that”, Luke said easily. “At least it will spare me from hearing any 'noises' during the night!”</p><p>“Or of an morning, afternoon or evening”, Stephen agreed.</p><p>His son glared at him.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>January 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“You are writing to Uncle Jamie, sir?”</p><p>Stephen nodded, surprised at his son's perspicacity.</p><p>“How did you know?” he asked.</p><p>“He told me about that special preparation he makes up so he can write to people in what he calls evanescent ink”, Stephen said. “Just to remind you I have been very good lately, so you will not tell me just what you wrote to him.”</p><p>The nobleman blushed. His son knew him too well!</p><p>“I had to write anyway, to pass on this bad news about Cornwall”, he said. “We had hopes that despite the Royalist leanings down there they might be kept out of the war, but Sir Ralph Hopton¹ has rallied them and defeated our troops at Braddock Down on Bodmin Moor, and will doubtless soon be looking to move into Devonshire. At least we can keep Plymouth supplied by sea, which will hinder any major advance from down there.”</p><p>“Surely somewhere as small and faraway as Cornwall cannot influence the war much?” Luke asked.</p><p>“Jamie fears that it might”, his father said. “That is why he is concerned about the North; it may like the West be a poor area but if the king can secure both of them and has enough men spare to pin down both Hull and Plymouth, then he may be able to march considerable forces down to join him at Oxford. From there he could then assault London, which would of course win him the war.”</p><p>“I hate war!” the boy said fiercely. “Anne says that gentlemen should sort their differences in a more sensible way.”</p><p>“That should always be our aim”, Stephen agreed, “but sometimes the differences are just too great and war must decide. Thus it always has been and likely always will be, I am afraid.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>The nobleman had not talked to his son about his choice of career, partly because he had been dreading that he too might march off to battle. Fortunately although only a second son himself with little chance of inheriting the Hexhamshire estates, his mother had insisted that he had enough lands to get by on fairly comfortably, and all those would of course pass to Luke one day.</p><p>Probably when Jamie returned from his wanderings and 'celebrated' that bit too much, he thought wryly. But at least he would go out with a smile on his face!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>February 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen groaned when he read the latest news from London. It was impressive that it had taken only three days and covered events almost in the opposite direction from Stalwarton, but still annoying.</p><p>“Another defeat, sir?” Luke asked. </p><p>Stephen bit back a smile. Towards the end of last month his son had started to grow a beard and had written to his soon to be wife to let her know. She had written back in no uncertain terms that she hated such things, and Luke had had it shaved off the very next day. His father had not smirked at just how whipped his son was, or at least he had gone out for a walk and smirked away from the house. Because he was considerate like that.</p><p>He nodded.</p><p>“The king has taken Cirencester, in south Gloucestershire”, he said. “A small place but strategically important; a major road junction and much of the wool trade comes through it. He will soon be sniffing around Bristol which he might have the strength to take, especially as it can be cut off from the sea and our Navy.”</p><p>“I thought that Bristol was a port, sir?” Luke said.</p><p>“It is”, Stephen said, “but it is situated some miles up the Avon so any ships that tried to relief it could easily be bombarded from both banks of the river. The same can be said of Gloucester which although smaller is in some ways more important. It hinders the king from getting the men that southern Wales can supply him, and blocks the Severn which is a major trading route.”</p><p>“Who do we have in charge in Gloucester?” Luke asked.</p><p>“They have just promoted Edward Massey, who was deputy governor there”, Stephen said dubiously. “He is only six years older than you, young indeed for such a strategic post so I must assume that he is popular otherwise the people there would not have accepted him. I hope that someone so young is up to such a position; I know that he originally sided with the king but, he claimed, left him because of his preference for Catholics.”</p><p>“We are the coming generation”, Luke smiled</p><p>“So will I be”, Stephen grinned, “when Jamie comes home!”</p><p>His son looked momentarily confused before he got it, and glared evilly at his father.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) Sir Ralph Hopton (b. 1596). One of the most able commanders in the war, his long friendship with Sir William Waller whom he had fought alongside in the German wars was one of the tragic counterpoints of the conflict.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Queen's Move</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The Queen returns to England with a huge arsenal of weapons for her husband and there are attempts at seventeenth-century news management, while both turncoats and pirates are discussed. Also Jamie moves on to Hull where he helps in preparations for the town's defence, then returns to his lover feeling somewhat.... you know.<br/>Yes you do!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>February 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“Jamie has nearly finished his travels”, Stephen told his son about a week later. “He says that he has to check on Newark and will then be coming home.”</p><p>“Memo to self”, his son muttered. “Make sure to vacate house for twenty-four hours at least!”</p><p>Stephen glared at him, no matter how true the boy's words would likely prove to be (he suspected around one hundred per cent).</p><p>“What is at Newark, sir”, Luke asked with what was far too knowing a smile for a fellow who wanted to live to see his own wedding. “It is only a small place, I recall.”</p><p>“Small but strategically important”, Stephen said. “A Royalist holding perilously lose to our critical East Anglian lands. Do you remember from your studies how the Wash Estuary pushes into the east of England, and that there is a huge area of marshland around it?”</p><p>“Of course”, the boy said. “The Fens is where Anne comes from although she is not fond of the area.”</p><p>“The Great North Road linking London to York and Edinburgh passes just west of the Fens and through Newark”, Stephen explained. “The king has some presence in the Midlands; if he could solidify that and reach across to the town, it would cut us off from our Yorkshire holdings.”</p><p>“But we could still supply them by sea?” Luke asked.</p><p>“Provided that we maintain control of the seas, yes”, Stephen said. “That is why I am worried about these rumours that the queen has been holding secret talks with the Dunkirkers.”</p><p>“Who?” his son asked.</p><p>“Dunkirk is a small port on the border between the Dutch and the remaining Spanish holdings in the Netherlands”, Stephen explained. “It is not far from our former possession of Calais, which as you know is where the Narrow Seas are at their narrowest. In such a hinterland Dunkirk has become a base for ne'er-do-wells and in particular pirates. The Spaniards may not be able to help King Charles directly what with their ongoing troubles, but they would be obliging enough to 'look the other way' if the king struck a deal with the pirates there. That would stretch our Navy even further.”</p><p>“Never mind”, his son said consolingly. “Uncle Jamie will be home soon, and you will have your mind taken off such things.”</p><p>He bowed and left the room, but Stephen was sure that he heard the boy mutter “if you have a mind left by the time he has finished with you!” Harrumph!</p><p>Yes, the brat was probably right, but even so.... harrumph!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>February 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Jamie's return was delayed as he had to dash back to Hull when news reached him that the queen had indeed made the crossing from the Continent and had landed a huge cache of arms at Tynemouth, a port near Newcastle up the coast. The nobleman knew that Pym and parliament were increasingly fretful that the Hothams who commanded Hull might still defect to the king – they did not like being subservient to their rivals the Fairfaxes, for one thing – so the soldier had had to be sent there as a reassuring presence until other men could make the much longer journey from London.</p><p>However on the last day of February a familiar figure strode up from the stables to the front door of the Hall, smiling to see Luke waiting for him.</p><p>“I sent Edward and some of the servants on a shopping expedition to Oxford with instructions to stay overnight”, the boy said, “and have dismissed the rest for the day. There is cold food covered in the dining room, and Uncle Jamie?”</p><p>“Yes, sir?”</p><p>“Do try to leave my father in one piece, please!”</p><p>Jamie chuckled as the boy took his horse and walked off towards the stables. Then he walked quickly into the building and, hungry as he was, did not hesitate before sprinting up the stairs.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>“The situation up there is not good, Ste”, Jamie said as he thrust away inside his lover. “I have doubts about both the Hothams in Hull and Cholmeley¹ up in Scarborough, a small but useful place for our Navy. Our men up there think that they can stop the Queen but I do not. I have sent to Pym warning him that an army must be found to intercept her before she gets all those weapons to her husband, so we shall see if he is up to it.”</p><p>Stephen moaned pleasurably. As if he was capable of words in his current state!</p><p>“While I, of course, am always up to it!” Jamie grinned, thrusting in even harder. And I see that you had the foresight to order in plenty of that wonderful healing balm from London, which was clever of you.”</p><p>Stephen blushed at that, even if it embarrassed him that the suggestion for that 'useful' London shop had come from his own, oversharing mother. They provided a whole host of items via delivery, including a balm which frankly he would have given his whole estate for at times like this. Although he had had to stop using the mint-scented one after young Edward had asked him if he had been visiting a herb-garden lately.</p><p>Some bastard of a lover snorting with laughter had not helped, either!</p><p>Jamie hoisted the nobleman's broken body close to his own and once again began to walk around the room with him, the Buckmaster doing things to his lover's insides that balm or no balm would leave him unable to walk properly for days. They were actually the same height but somehow the supremely fit soldier was easily able to bear the nobleman's weight as he claimed him once more.</p><p>Stephen passed out.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>March 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“Uncle Jamie, have you heard of these peace talks they are talking about in the news-sheets?”</p><p>Stephen glared at his son, who he was sure was speaking deliberately loudly. His head, along with several other rather important parts of his body, <i>hurt!</i></p><p>“You mean the secret Royalist newspaper that Edward bought down in Oxford?” Jamie asked dryly, also in what Stephen considered an unnecessarily loud voice. At least he had the consolation prize of seeing his son embarrassed.</p><p>“He told you!” the boy grumbled.</p><p>“Not exactly”, Jamie grinned brightly. “But he did ask me what a 'Soundhead' was, and I knew that the latest Oxford edition of <i>Mercurius Aulicus</i> had that particular story.”</p><p>The boy scowled.</p><p>“As you know”, Jamie said, taking pity on him but still speaking far too loudly for Stephen's liking, “the king's men are being called Cavaliers. It was meant as an insult, from the Spanish <i>caballero</i> referring to the horsemen who rode over their enemies, but they have taken it as a badge of honour. Our men they call Roundheads because some of us have a short haircut, even though both sides have men like that. One of our own news-sheets tried to change it to Soundheads so <i>Aulicus</i> was making fun of them.”</p><p>“You know so much, Uncle Jamie”, Luke said. “I see that my father has finished his meal. Are you going to help him to his room?”</p><p>“I do not need help!” Stephen said not at all testily.</p><p>Unfortunately he made the mistake of rising to his feet a little too quickly, and his eyes watered. He may also have uttered a short, almost inaudible exclamation of mild discomfort, which unfortunately was not inaudible enough to be missed by the smirking ha'p'orths across the table. Family!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>March 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Jamie sighed as he read the latest reports from the front.</p><p>“As I feared”, he said heavily. “The queen is making her way to York and has easily brushed aside our small forces up there. Also Cholmeley has defected.”</p><p>“You said that you expected that, though”, Stephen pointed out.</p><p>“Yes, but it is still a loss”, Jamie said. “Scarborough will be a useful port for the king, easily defended by its huge castle. His wife will be within range of Hull soon; she will not have the strength to besiege it but there is still the danger that the Hothams will try to hand it over to her. They are strong in the East Riding and may be able to carry the town with them.”</p><p>“Turncoats!” Stephen muttered.</p><p>“Why are they called that, Uncle Jamie?”</p><p>Stephen would have glared at his son for always turning to his lover for facts, but even two weeks on from the latter's return he was still sore in places that no English noblemen should really have been sore in. After the initial flames of passion at his return Jamie had remained fiercely possessive of him every night since, half the time whispering how much he had missed him and the other half trying to kill him through sex! And worse, his son knew full well that his father was nearly always on the receiv.... look, he just <i>knew!</i></p><p>“When barons had their own large private armies, there would often be a number of different badges on the field”, Jamie explained. “Some barons would sometimes plan to switch sides halfway through a battle so would give their men coats – tabards, really – with their own badge on the outside and the one they were changing sides to on the inside. That way, when they did turn their coats they would not be fired upon by their new allies.”</p><p>“That sounds sensible”, Luke agreed.</p><p>“It was needed”, Jamie said. “At the Battle of Barnet in 1471 the Lancastrians had nearly twice the number of men as the Yorkists, but one of them had a badge that was very similar to that of the Yorkist leader Edward the Fourth. Unluckily for him his men pushed their opposing wing off the battlefield, but when they returned the battle lines had spun around and they ended up coming in behind their own lines. They were thought to have turned their coats and were fired upon, so the battle was soon lost.”</p><p>“A dark time, the Cousins' Wars”, Stephen agreed.</p><p>“At least their armies were mostly run by skilled leaders”, Jamie said. “Ours are nearly all run by amateurs, which is why the likes of Prince Rupert's cavalry are so effective. We need someone on our side just as good, and we need them now!”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>March 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Unusually there were two letters that day. Jamie had gone out to help deal with a tree that had fallen in the river and was partly blocking it, so Stephen got to read them first.</p><p>“Good and bad”, he told his son when he had finished. “The good is that we have won a small victory at a place called Middlewich up in Cheshire.”</p><p>“That is where the king hopes to bring in Irish troops, is it not sir?” Luke asked.</p><p>“You mean men from Ireland”, Stephen corrected. “I know that many suspect the king of being in league with the Confederate Irish – their producing that charter that they claimed was sighed by him did not help – but no-one who knows him would believe such a thing, especially as he is doing fairly well in this contention. He will be bringing back English troops sent to Ireland although you may be right in one thing; I doubt many of the men serving under him will spot the difference between English Irish and Irish Irish.”</p><p>The boy nodded.</p><p>“What was the bad news?” he asked.</p><p>“I may have to put up with your Uncle Jamie's smug face again”, he sighed. “It looks like he was right about the Hothams and their questionable loyalty. Not only did they not try to stop the Queen from reaching York but they even went to talks with her concerning an exchange of prisoners. All necessary in this day and age, but one wonders what else they talked about.”</p><p>“Uncle Jamie says that it would be really serious if we lost Hull”, Luke said. “And he normally only looks smug at the breakfast-table – <i>although we both know why that is!”</i></p><p>He looked reprovingly at his parent, who blushed.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) Sir Hugh Cholmeley (b. 1600). Along with the younger Hotham to whom he was distantly related, he was a member of parliament for Scarborough. His title was Baron Chomleley but it died out when his son died in 1689.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Bodies For Guns?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A darker side of war manifests itself as one man commits a war crime while another offers a despicable deal. And as previously feared, culture also rears its ugly head in an already complicated contention. Black Tom suffers a defeat but luckily Stephen is not at all jealous of his lover admiring another man's passably tolerable looks, so there!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>March 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen was impressed. His lover's face remained impassive and he was not even bursting into flames, despite the murderous look that a certain young gentleman was shooting at him from across the table.</p><p>“How could you?” the boy snapped. “I told you yesterday that Father was letting me invite the vicar back to the Hall for drinks, and.... <i>how could you?”</i></p><p>Stephen had to work hard to hold back a smile. Yes, Luke had told his lover that the day before but last night..... it was fair to say that the nobleman would be making a large donation to the plate this Sabbath as he had rather a lot of sins to atone for, some of which he had not even thought possible. It probably served him right for underestimating his lover. </p><p>Who had forgotten about the vicar's advent and had used that morning to build a snowman on the path leading down to the church. An anatomically-correct snowman, even if (as per usual) certain parts were somewhat out of proportion. Despite what someone boasted!</p><p>“Reverend Garry thought it amusing”, Jamie muttered, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the table. Stephen knew why; he was likely laughing and hiding his face from the death-glare being sent at him.</p><p>“Only because I have to live with you two and was able to come up with that line about the village boys being responsible!” Luke retorted. “What if he questions them and they deny it?”</p><p>Jamie raised his head and looked piteously at the boy.</p><p>“Do not try that with me, James Buchanan!” Luke said sharply. “That sort of 'woe is me' look only works on my father.”</p><p>“I know”, Jamie grinned. “But then he does have a spare afternoon....”</p><p>The boy all but shrieked in frustration at them both and stormed off. They managed to hold off from laughing until he was out of the room. Just.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>March 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen winced as he read his latest letter.</p><p>“Another defeat?” Jamie asked from where he was lying with his head on his lover's lap. </p><p>The nobleman toyed with the soldier's overlong hair and sighed.</p><p>“No”, he said. “A draw of sorts.”</p><p>Jamie looked up at him curiously.</p><p>“But?” he pressed.</p><p>“One of the fellows on the other side who I admired”, he said. “Spencer¹, the Earl of Northampton, has fallen at a place called Hopton Heath in Staffordshire.”</p><p>The soldier continued to look at him. Stephen sighed.</p><p>“Our man who was against him, John Gell, is the opposite in character”, he said. “I despise the fellow; he is only in this war for what he can get out of it. After the battle his opponents asked for the return of Spencer's body, and Gell refused unless his captured guns were returned to him.”</p><p>“That is despicable!” Jamie exclaimed. “A man without honour.”</p><p>“Spencer's son James is if I remember not quite twenty-one”, Stephen said, “but hopefully even Charles Stuart would overlook that given his late father's service. And our men had to withdraw for want of weapons so that leaves most of Staffordshire in the king's hands. If he can take Lichfield then he will have it all and maybe even able to start moving against Coventry.”</p><p>“Or possibly even south towards London”, Jamie said. “Fancy some more hot sex to take your mind off it all?”</p><p>Stephen sighed. His lover was incorrigible – fortunately!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>March 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen stared up at his lover, confused. At least his vision had returned; Jamie had been in the mood for one of his slow lovemaking sessions the night before which, despite the tenderness that the soldier showed in comparison with the rough treatment of other times, still somehow left the nobleman feeling even more wrecked.</p><p>“I thought that you would be pleased”, the nobleman managed. “A victory is a victory, surely?”</p><p>“It may be an old canard”, Jamie said as he rubbed his muscled body slowly up and down that of his lover who moaned in pleasure, “but there is a lot of truth in the saying that victory can bring as many problems as defeat.”</p><p>“At least this victory at Highnam in Gloucestershire strengthens our positions in both Bristol and Gloucester”, Stephen said. “And it hinders the king's recruiting in Wales, which can only be a good thing.”</p><p>“Can it?” Jamie asked, still working slowly on his lover's body. He kissed the nobleman gently on the lips before working his way down his chest.</p><p>“You know how unfair it is that you can always win arguments that way”, Stephen grumbled in mock annoyance.</p><p>“Part of you very 'firmly' disagrees with that!” Jamie grinned, gently working his lover's cock. “What I meant was that while a civil war is never good, we may be about to make this one even worse.”</p><p>“How?” Stephen managed, his eyes watering at his lover's handling. “Oh my Lord!”</p><p>“I know I am”, Jamie snarked, ceasing his efforts for the moment. “I saw something like it in Germany. Contrary to what people think there are lots of sub-cultures among the Germans who hate each other with something not far short of the old divide between Saxon and Celt in this country. The king already has lots of Welshmen in his army; if he brings in Irishmen too then battles and their aftermaths are going to become even more sectarian. An Englishman will do things to a Celt that he would never do to a fellow Saxon, and <i>vice versa</i>.”</p><p>Stephen looked at him shrewdly.</p><p>“Yet we both know that Pym would dearly love to bring your own Scots in to help him”, he said, “especially as they are technically still in revolt against the king.”</p><p>“Indeed, my love”, Jamie smiled. “Charles Stuart thinks that he can keep my fellow countrymen out of the war until he has won it and then march north to deal with them. He is not wise enough to see that the likes of Argyll have long seen through that, and will simply wait for it to happen. The closer the king gets to victory, the more likely it is that they will come out against him.”</p><p>Stephen knew what that meant.</p><p>“And you would want to march north and be with your fellow countrymen”, he sighed. “Sometimes I do wish you were not such a brilliant soldier.”</p><p>Jamie grinned.</p><p>“Then let me prove some of the benefits of that!” he said.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>A few moments later Luke had to go out for a walk. In the rain, damnation!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>April 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Luke flinched as he saw Jamie's face darken over his latest letter.</p><p>“Bad news, sir?” he asked.</p><p>“Very!” Jamie growled. “Prince Rupert has sacked the town of Birmingham²!”</p><p>Stephen winced at that. Luke looked at them both curiously.</p><p>“But you said that such things were common in war, Uncle Jamie”, he said.</p><p>“Common enough back in Germany but not here”, Jamie said. “The prince has made a bad mistake here in not stopping his men; I can guarantee that Mr. Pym will have reports of the slaughter all around London soon enough. The town may be famous for its swordsmiths but they will hardly feel inclined to make weapons for the king after this sort of treatment.”</p><p>“One catches more flies with honey than with vinegar”, Stephen agreed. “Was there better news in your letter from the North?”</p><p>Jamie shook his head.</p><p>“Black Tom³ has been defeated at Seacroft Moor”, he sighed, “and has retreated to Hull.”</p><p>“Who?” Luke asked.</p><p>“Ferdinando Fairfax's son up in Yorkshire”, Jamie said. “An odd name as 'Fairfax' means fair hair, but he is known as Black Tom because of his handsome face and dark locks.”</p><p>Stephen looked at his lover sharply. It was fortunate that he was not the jealous sort of lover or he might well have been annoyed at the soldier calling another man handsome.</p><p>“You have met him?” he asked, his tone cool for no particular reason.</p><p>Jamie smirked.</p><p>“He is four years younger than us both but a fine soldier”, he said unhelpfully, “and the king was frankly stupid for losing his support when this contention started. Had he secured it, he might well have had almost all Yorkshire and perhaps found himself in a position to threaten Hull despite its mighty defences. Fairfax is, by the way, very happily married.”</p><p>Stephen pouted at both that and his son's sniggering.</p><p>“I do admire him because of his character”, Jamie said unhelpfully. “He may have taken his time to choose a side but I am sure that he will not turn his coat like so many will when the war swings one way or another. You look rather warm, Ste.”</p><p>“Father probably needs a good lie down”, Luke grinned. “He is looking rather <i>green</i>, do you not think Uncle Jamie?”</p><p>Stephen huffed and left the teasing bastards behind.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) Spencer Compton (b. 1601). The foul actions of Gell nearly caught up with him in London the following Christmas when he chanced to encounter an understandably annoyed James Compton in London, the young man chasing and nearly killing him before he could get away. James's descendants still hold the title which has been elevated a level; Spencer Compton (b. 1946) is as of 2021 the current Marquess of Northampton.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>2) Then a small town of around 5,000 people, smaller than nearby Coventry (7,000). The skirmish is now called the Battle of Camp Hill.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>3) Thomas Fairfax, Lord of Cameron (b. 1612), son and heir to Ferdinando Lord Fairfax. Both men had initially been supporters of the king but when he had been at York the year before, Thomas had tried to present him with a petition for a peaceful settlement. Charles, being Charles, had 'not seen him' and had nearly ridden over him. Thomas's line died out but his family still hold the title with Nicholas Fairfax being Lord of Cameron as of 2021.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Tired And Emotional</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Both sides gear up to take strategic towns, but who will secure their target first? There is a reverse at Ripple and an about-face at Ancaster, while Stephen makes his lover blush. A seemingly bad deal is actually rather good, while a certain Captain Cromwell is employing some strange men in his regiment. And Luke considers both new furniture and new relatives!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>April 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“Your father looks really tired today”, Edward observed to Luke a few days later. “It cannot be the news from Ireland, surely? I thought that that was good?”</p><p>“Taking one town, even somewhere as useful as New Ross, will hardly change the balance of power in that unhappy land”, Jamie observed from where he was sat on the window-seat. “Be assured Master Edward, my lord Amerike is fine.”</p><p>“Maybe just suffering from an attack of jealousy?” Luke grinned.</p><p>“Not any more”, Jamie said shortly. “He is cured of that now!”</p><p>Luke winced. Edward looked between them curiously.</p><p>“Who was my guardian jealous of?” he asked. </p><p>“It is a family thing I am afraid, Master Edward”, Jamie said. “Not to worry; I have gone into the matter very thoroughly – several times yesterday evening, in fact – and he is no longer jealous.”</p><p>“Probably not enough of him left to be jealous!” Luke muttered to himself.</p><p>He was sure that neither of the others could have heard him, so the soldier's slight nod was doubly annoying!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>April 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>One of the things that Luke liked about his father's study – which for his own sanity's sake he always made sure to listen at the door of before entering! – was the large map of the British Isles which his father used to show what was happening in the war. Using red pins for the king and orange for parliament¹, the colours that men wore on the field of battle, it was clear to see that his side's forces were dominant in the south and east while the king held most of the Midlands, north and west. Although as his Uncle Jamie had pointed out, the two key fortresses of Hull and Plymouth helped to counter that.</p><p>“We are approaching a key point in the war”, Stephen said, gesturing to the map. “After the sacking of Birmingham, Prince Rupert is moving against Lichfield, not far from there. If he can take that then he may even try to seize Coventry² and strengthen the link with the king's lands around Oxford.”</p><p>“But?” Luke pressed. He could tell from his father's tone of voice that there was more.</p><p>“At the same time the Earl of Essex is advancing on the town of Reading, about halfway between London and Oxford”, he said. “Taking it would threaten the king's capital and force him to keep more of his troops stationed in its defence.”</p><p>The boy winced.</p><p>“That means more demands on the estate from the king”, he sighed. “Not good.”</p><p>“I know that some on the estate may wish to join up”, his father said, “so I made it clear to them all that if they notified me beforehand then that was acceptable, for whichever side their conscience directs them towards. Provided that I am informed, I will make the usual arrangements for their dependants if the worst happens. However, if they just leave without telling me then they may find that they do not have a place to come back to.”</p><p>Luke supposed that that was fair. An estate needed workers as much as a king needed an army³. Armies had to be fed, after all.</p><p>“The reports I had today suggested that both places will come under siege at about the same time”, Stephen said. “I know that Essex is always cautious, which is sometimes a good thing, but I can only hope that he gets a move on this time.”</p><p>Luke nodded as he knelt on the long couch and stood up, then nearly overbalanced.</p><p>“That thing is nearly worn out”, he complained. “You really to get a new one, sir.”</p><p>It was an accurate observation, but unfortunately not a wise one. His father blushed deeply and, before he could stop himself Luke's brain was playing a rather too vivid mental image of just how this particular item of furniture had gotten so worn down.</p><p>“You two are terrible!” the boy grumbled.</p><p>Stephen grinned.</p><p>“Actually Jamie was rather good!”</p><p>His son just shook his head at him.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>April 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Jamie looked at his lover suspiciously.</p><p>“It seems like too good a deal”, he said warily. “What is the catch?”</p><p>“I asked Diana to look into it”, Stephen said, “but it seems that there is not one. Lord Farnborough wishes to acquire the estate's solitary holding down in Abingdon and is willing to offer a share in a convoy business in exchange. He owns other lands in the town so I suppose that it helps to consolidate his holdings.”</p><p>“He must be stupider than he looks, then”, Jamie said shortly.</p><p>“I suppose that he thinks he is getting a better deal”, Stephen said, “since pound for pound the lands are as you say worth nearly half as much again as the business share. But not if the lands are wrecked having been bled by both sides for years on end. And the convoys are booming just now, with so many people fearing for safety out on the roads.”</p><p>Jamie nodded. He knew as well as his lover that around both London and Oxford there was a cordon of men demanding to see the passes of all who entered and left their regions, and doubtless indulging in some small-scale thievery where they thought that they might get away with it. Travelling in a convoy avoided that.</p><p>“We shall set out for Huntingdon a week before the wedding”, Stephen said, “and bring Anne back afterwards. Luke is already looking forward to being a father, I know.”</p><p>Jamie nodded but said nothing. His lover looked at him curiously.</p><p>“Do you ever regret that with me?” he asked. “I know how we joke that you think to get me pregnant one of these days, but....”</p><p>“I have you and Luke”, Jamie said simply. “My cup of happiness if full to overflowing anyway.”</p><p>Stephen smiled at that.</p><p>“Although if you want to go upstairs and make it overflow some more.....”</p><p>The nobleman just sighed, and followed his lover out of the room. It was going to be a rough day and he really should have known better than to mention Feelings to his lover who always reacted by....</p><p>He needed to do that more often!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>April 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>It was worth his son's disapproving look the following day, and almost worth his eyes watering as he sat down very carefully on two large cushions.</p><p>“You had a letter from Captain Cromwell”, Luke said, shaking his head at his father's state. “He says that he is looking forward to welcoming you to the Fens, but that his men have recently suffered a defeat in a skirmish at a place called Ancaster. I looked it up and it is in Lincolnshire, the Kesteven Part.”</p><p>“That is bad, for all he calls it a skirmish”, Stephen sighed, wincing as he tried to make himself comfortable. “Lincolnshire is key to the defence of East Anglia and Ancaster cannot be far from the county's southern boundary; if the king's men can break into Norfolk then that would threaten one of our key recruiting grounds.”</p><p>“He also says that he is having problems with some of his fellow commanders”, Luke said. “That does not surprise me!”</p><p>Stephen shook his head at his son, an unwise move as that hurt even more.</p><p>“Not for the reasons that you are thinking, son”, he said reprovingly, wiping his eyes. “Cromwell believes in recruiting men to his army who can follow orders, not just anyone who applies. His forces may be small but they are about as close to a professional army as anyone is getting these days. Jamie thinks very highly of him.”</p><p>“Uncle Jamie thinks very highly of a lot of things”, Luke said, looking reprovingly at his father. “Hence those two cushions!”</p><p>Stephen blushed.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>April 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>There was more news from the front, and it was all bad.</p><p>“Ripple Field”, Stephen sighed. “More than a ripple in our plans, it further weakens our position around Gloucester which we must hold. Waller might well have been destroyed had not Massey marched from there to assist him; at least that young fellow has proven me wrong about his abilities and I am glad of it. To cap it all Hopton has somehow persuaded the Cornish Trained Bands to march into Devonshire.”</p><p>“He cannot take Plymouth”, Jamie said, “as it is too well defended. Although his wasting time besieging it would be a good thing. Too often have I seen a good commander tempted by a fat city for his men to pillage afterwards.”</p><p>He looked consideringly at his lover.</p><p>“Something else is worrying you”, he said shrewdly. “What is it?”</p><p>“I may have put my foot in it with the king”, Stephen sighed. “You remember poor Spencer Compton who died at Hopton last month?”</p><p>Jamie nodded.</p><p>“You thought that the king would let his son succeed even though he was a few months short of his majority”, he said. “Do not tell me that he was stupid enough not to?”</p><p>“I am afraid that he considered it”, Stephen sighed. “Diana alerted me to the fact that some down at Oxford saw a chance to help themselves to part of the new earl's lands and as we know the king always needs money. I asked Aidan to speak up in favour of him and young James was acknowledged as the new earl, but now we have made several enemies there who will be looking for revenge at making them miss out on what they regarded as theirs by right.”</p><p>“And in this contention they might well find it”, Jamie said. “Do you think that I should remain behind when Luke goes off to be married this autumn?”</p><p>Stephen shook his head.</p><p>“He needs both of his fathers there”, he smiled.</p><p>His lover's blush was wonderful to behold!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) This usually only applied to sashes worn by cavalry commanders. More common were code-words used by each side to identify allies or enemies, and some sort of symbol such as a paper strip worn in a hat.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>2) He did not, as the city remained in parliamentarian hands throughout the wars and was used as a place to hold many captured Royalists. These were usually shunned by the local populace, hence the saying 'to be sent to Coventry'.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>3) A key element in the king's eventual defeat was his poor (non-existent) administrative skills. Many of the noblemen who funded and provided his army, James Compton included, complained that other Royalist leaders pillaged their lands and rendered them unable to afford their own forces. Some later withdrew from the field as a result.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. A Strange Departure</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>One nobleman's cruelty ends with him feeling a complete Whalley, there is better news for parliament from the West, and two important sieges reach their conclusions. A group of zealots starts targeting monuments and statues linked to the other side, and Luke wishes yet again that he could exchange his relatives for less embarrassing models.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>April 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen sighed as he read the latest letter from London.</p><p>“Bad news, sir?” Luke asked.</p><p>“Bad but expected”, his father sighed. “The indefatigable Rupert has taken Lichfield, as we feared he would. Meanwhile the Earl of Essex advances at a snail's pace on Reading.”</p><p>“Is that why Mr. Pym asked for Uncle Jamie to go down there?” the boy asked.</p><p>Stephen sniffed and tried not to look at the very empty place at their table.</p><p>“Sort of”, he said. “An earl would never take advice from a common soldier, as Jamie well knows, but he has met up with a small force who are going to try to stop the king from sending reinforcements. Reading is not that far from Oxford and both are on the Thames, so he might even try to use the river.”</p><p>“Uncle Jamie will stop him, sir”, Luke smiled. “And he will come back to us.”</p><p>“I know”, Stephen said bravely.</p><p>“Which reminds me”, the boy said, “I need to buy myself some more ear-plugs!”</p><p>Stephen sighed at the sassy fellow. He really was far too forward for someone not yet a man!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>Most unusually there was a second letter later that same day, which had also come from London.</p><p>“This is direct from Pym himself”, Stephen said. “Poor fellow, having to bear the weight of the war on his shoulders.”</p><p>“Good or bad news?” Luke asked anxiously as his father walked over to the large map on the wall.</p><p>“Very good”, Stephen smiled. Remember my mentioning Lord Strange, now the Earl of Derby whose bullying ways did not always serve the king's cause well?”</p><p>“And that he was a distant relative of the king”, Luke said, “which we know is never a good thing where the Stuarts are concerned.”</p><p>“It seems that his evil ways finally caught up with him at some place called Whalley”, Stephen said, tracing his finger across the map. “Only a village but Pym says that is it about fifteen miles east of Preston, so about.... there. One of our men managed to outwit him in the valleys there, and the angry locals rose in fury to avenge their ill-use over the past year. He is fleeing to the Isle of Man.”</p><p>“Why there?” Luke wondered. “It is the middle of nowhere.”</p><p>Stephen shook his head.</p><p>“You are forgetting about the king's hopes of bringing men over from Ireland”, he reminded his son. “Man is his territory, a huge fortress protecting the northern crossings, although the upside is that Lancashire will be pretty much ours for now¹. Or at least the more industrial southern areas which are important as we can threaten the Irish Sea and reduce the likelihood of the king bringing in help from Ireland.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>April 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“Well, at least we know the king's strategy now.”</p><p>Luke looked at his father in surprise.</p><p>“I thought that we already did, sir”, he said. “To solidify his grip on the kingdom's outer reaches and then bring armies from there to London for a march on London.”</p><p>“Yes”, Stephen said, “but there is a world of difference between intelligence-based speculation and actually knowing. Our forces down in the West have not only won a great victory despite being outnumbered, but they also captured some of the king's correspondence detailing his plans. Including his hopes for foreign intervention on his behalf.”</p><p>Luke looked shrewdly at him.</p><p>“Which Mr. Pym will have had published just before he makes his next exhortation for more taxes”, he said.</p><p>“Cynical but correct”, Stephen smiled. “This letter is less than clear as it only lists the battle as having happened at some place called Sourton Down, but as he also says that our forces were halfway back to Exeter having tried and failed to take Launceston, it must be close to the town of Okehampton. On the edge of Dartmoor; reputedly a very wild area.”</p><p>“Anne likes the countryside”, Luke said, “but she is not fond of the cold otherwise we might go to the relative safety of Scotland to settle.”</p><p>His father shook his head.</p><p>“In this conflict”, he said, “I very much doubt that anywhere will soon be considered 'safe'. Relative or otherwise.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>April 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen got another letter the very next day, and turned deathly pale when he read it.</p><p>“Is your father all right, Luke?” Edward asked anxiously once the nobleman had gone to his study.”</p><p>“He must have received word from Uncle Jamie that he is on his way back from the successful siege of Reading”, Luke said. “Chatton told me when he came back from Oxford yesterday; the king made several attempts to reinforce his garrison there but thanks to Uncle Jamie they were all beaten off.”</p><p>Edward frowned.</p><p>“But why did he look so pale?” he asked. “And start breathing faster. His hand was shaking as he left us.”</p><p>Because like me, he knows damn well what that means, Luke thought with a sigh. One ultra-horny Winter Soldier coming here very soon, and my father coming soon after..... ugh!</p><p>Fortunately he was saved from having to answer his friend's questions by the advent of Fraser, who bowed to them both.</p><p>“Master Jamie is at the cottage”, he said, “and asks that Master Stephen attend on him.”</p><p>“He is in his study”, Stephen said. “I shall go and fetch him for you. Er, where is Chatton, Fraser?”</p><p>The burly steward grinned. </p><p>“Working on those barn repairs down at Hampton”, he said. “I am off to join him once your master is on his way.”</p><p>Luke sighed and went to get his father. He would barely have time to get the words out before the fellow was walking away with what could only be described as over-eagerness, which turned into a sprint as he headed for the bridge over the river.</p><p>Adults!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>April 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“I could have sworn that I saw your father earlier”, Edward said to Luke the following day. “Just when we were coming back from Wolfstown, although he was limping for some reason.”</p><p>Not for the first and certainly not for the last time in his life, Lucius Stephen Amerike really wished that he was adopted.</p><p>“He was out with Uncle Jamie earlier”, he said, trying not to think of what his father had been up to with the soldier for the last twenty-four hours. <i>Twenty-four hours!</i> Worse, he could not think of that without remembering some horrible sort-of relative quipping that 'Your father calls me the Winter Soldier because I am very hard and seem to last forever!' Also that his father had nodded like that..... adults!</p><p>“I wonder how he got the limp”, Edward mused.</p><p>Luke knew all too well how his father had gotten the limp, and that very soon he would have a smirking soldier to deal with as well as a father who would be sitting down very carefully for the next few days. He really should have gotten back sooner so he could have hidden all the cushions!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>May 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“You have another letter from Mr. Pym, sir.”</p><p>Stephen glared at both his son and his grinning lover.</p><p><i>”Must</i> you be so loud?” he grumbled. “My head!”</p><p>“I would have thought the other end was more problematical!” Jamie quipped.</p><p>Stephen would have glared at him but he did not have the energy. Instead he sighed and opened his letter.</p><p>“Any news from London?” Luke asked once he had read it.</p><p>“They are instituting a new and very large tax on both annoying soldiers and on teenage sons who do not respect their elders!” Stephen snarked.</p><p>“I always respect you”, Jamie grinned.</p><p>“Do we not know it!” Luke muttered.</p><p>“And the people of London are angry that parliament ordered the removal of the Charing and Cheapside Crosses²”, Stephen said. “A sop to the extremists I suppose, removing a trapping of monarchy, but the things are popular with the common people.”</p><p>“I always thought that very romantic”, Luke smiled. “A king's wife dies and he builds a cross at each place along the road to London where her coffin rested. That is true love!”</p><p>Both men just looked at him. The boy blushed fiercely.</p><p>“Shut up!” he muttered. “I am going out for a walk – and unlike my father, at least <i>I</i> can still walk!”</p><p>It was Stephen's turn to blush, not helped by his lover falling about with laughter as the boy stormed off. The boy really was getting... why was his lover looking at him like that? Lord help him!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>The Lord, as per usual, did not. And verily Stephen Roger Amerike was glad!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) Actually Stephen was wrong – there was someone that he had overlooked.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>2) The last two of twelve memorial crosses erected by King Edward the First (ruled 1272-1307) to mark the funeral route of the coffin of his wife Eleanor of Castile (1241-1290). Three – Geddington (4th), Hardingstone (5th) and Waltham Cross (10th) – survive but the ones at Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St. Albans and the two London ones at Cheapside and Charing are all lost. Charing was the most ornate one and a statue of Charles the First now stands on its site; this is the point used to measure distances from London to all other towns and cities. A modern and much more ornate cross was erected in 1865 outside Charing Cross Railway Station some distance away.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Skirting The Issue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The king's hopes of foreign support fade because of developments on the Continent. London is the scene of plotting, the East is secured for parliament (at least for now) while in Oxfordshire Stephen faces more difficulties from his charge's uncle, Anthony Stark. Also Jamie again helps out again with the war effort, which means another triumphant return to Stalwarton and another run of days in which his lover will be sitting down very carefully. If at all!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>May 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“It was very good of you, sir.”</p><p>Stephen smiled at his son. It was traditional for a father to have to give his bride a dowry when marrying her off, but given the disparity between his and his future in-law's wealth, he had waived that right. Besides Cromwell had rather a lot of other matters to hand just now.</p><p>“War is a difficult enough time as it is”, he said, “and your future father-in-law is for all his talents not that rich a man. He also has three other daughters to marry off for whom he must find portions, although two are but yet young.”</p><p>Luke nodded. He saw the unspoken truth there, that far too many children died young in this day and age. His future father-in-law had lost his eldest son Robert when the latter had been eighteen and away at college, as well as the infant James the day after his baptism. These were dangerous times and not just because of the war.</p><p>“But his victory at Grantham will secure the east for a time, will it not?” Luke asked.</p><p>“It will”, Stephen conceded, “but if he has any sense the Earl of Newcastle will be striving to get into Lincolnshire and threaten the important recruiting grounds of East Anglia. Also Pym is undertaking negotiations with the Scots which may being them into the war, and their natural route south lies through Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.”</p><p>“But you said that it might only happen when things look too good for the king”, Luke pointed out.</p><p>“That is the dilemma that Jamie's countrymen find themselves on the horns of”, Stephen said. “No-one wants to start or join an unnecessary war, but they know that if they leave it too long and the king is victorious in England, then it will only be a matter of months before he marches against them. For all that there is a patched-up peace they are basically still in rebellion against him, and as we have seen....”</p><p>“He is God's man doing God's work, so cannot be wrong”, Luke sighed. “What a mess!”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>May 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>It was an even worse mess just two days later with some bad news out of the West.</p><p>“I was afraid of this”, Stephen told his lover. “Hopton's Cornishmen have won at Stratton in the north of their county. Our men down there became overconfident after Sourton and have been crushed.”</p><p>“But we still have Plymouth”, Jamie pointed out. </p><p>“Which given the king's foul dealings with the Dunkirkers is becoming ever harder to resupply”, Stephen fretted. “If that falls then he would have complete control of the south-west and could throw all his weight against Bristol. Worse, the Cornish have some excellent leaders and he might be able to leave enough men behind to blockade Plymouth then send the rest to join the king and the indefatigable Rupert. Things do not look good down there, I am afraid.”</p><p>“Never mind”, Jamie grinned. “Let me take your mind off of things by showing you somewhere that things do look good!”</p><p>One of these days Stephen would work out his his lover could move so fast to get his hand.... well, one day when his brain was working again!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>May 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen stared in surprise at the latest news-sheet.</p><p>“More bad news?” Jamie asked.</p><p>“I am not sure”, the nobleman said. “King Louis has died.”</p><p>The soldier thought for a moment.</p><p>“His son is but young if I remember”, he said at last. Stephen nodded.</p><p>“Louis the Fourteenth”, he said. “The French are not very original with their king's names. Yes, he is four years of age and has a younger brother, Philippe, aged two. There were rumours that their father was..... you know.”</p><p>“That their father was prone to waving his arms a lot?” Jamie asked with a sly smile.</p><p>“You know what I mean!” Stephen said crossly. “The late king's wife had several children stillborn over the years but it was often rumoured that the king disliked that side of his job intensely. And last year one of his favourites was put to death for conspiring with the Spanish. The old king can have been barely forty years of age; they say that his death was tuberculosis but... one wonders¹.”</p><p>“It is France”, Jamie said sagely. “One is probably right to wonder.”</p><p>“They also say that his widow, Anne of Austria², has had his will annulled and has set herself up as regent”, Stephen said. “That may well lead to problems in the future; I know from Pym that she has the same extremist views about Divine Right that our own king does. But she will not want to risk endangering an already shaky position by getting France involved in English affairs, whatever her feelings towards our French queen.”</p><p>“Though she will doubtless offer covert support to the Catholic Irish rebels”, Jamie sighed, “if only because her enemies the Spanish are doing the same. We are lucky they are at war with each other, else one or the other might come more fully to the king's aid.”</p><p>“He likely expects them to anyway”, Stephen said, “as well as looking to bring more troops out of Ireland. This war really is going nowhere fast.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>May 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Edward Stark bowed to his guardian.</p><p>“I have received another letter from my uncle, sir”, he said. “He wishes to know if he might receive an advance on his allowance.”</p><p>Stephen sighed. His late uncle's will had left small allowances to both his son and grandson, ostensibly in lieu of his not being able to leave them anything else what with the Bradstock estate officially passing to Stephen's brother Aidan. It was not much in either case, but for a soldier whose pay was irregular and sometimes non-existent it was he supposed quite valuable.</p><p>“What do you think, sir?” he asked, to the boy's evident surprise. </p><p>“I am not the man to be making the decision”, Edward pointed out.</p><p>“But you are thirteen so not far from being a man”, Stephen countered, “and you run your own finances very well. Your uncle does not have such a good reputation, and an advance on his moneys now may just lead to another request for money later in the year when he has spent it all.”</p><p>“Some men are bad with money”, the boy said sententiously. “If I might be honest, sir, I do not like my uncle much. I would much rather have no dealings with him at all.”</p><p>Stephen knew the unspoken fear there, namely that Anthony Stark might well think that his nephew meeting 'an unfortunate accident' might lead to his receiving double his allowance. If he ever found out the truth about his late father's secret marriage, that 'accident' would be much more likely.</p><p>“The terms of the bequest allow me to offer him the capital as a lump sum conditional on his legally waiving all future claims to the estate”, the nobleman suggested. “If he then wastes it all on fripperies, he would have no legal recourse against us. I shall write and offer him that option.”</p><p>The boy smiled in gratitude.</p><p>“Thank you, sir.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>May 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“In a woman's skirts?”</p><p>Luke sniggered from his chair at his uncle's words.</p><p>“That is something I would not have expected to hear from either of you!” he snarked.</p><p>Stephen blushed and turned to his lover.</p><p>“Pym knew that the king was plotting something in the capital”, he said, “and once again one of the plotters decided to save his own skin rather than risk all for a plot which he thought unlikely to succeed. It was found that the king had had his Commission of Array smuggled into the city inside a woman's skirts, after which it would be handed to and read out by the Lord Mayor. Royalists were supposed to rise and overthrow parliament, but it never happened.”</p><p>“That is what I fear about our position”, Jamie said. “We are very strong in London, the south and the east, but in all those places there are Royalist pockets which might cause trouble. On the other hand for all that the king has more land under his control we have forts and strong points scattered across them, almost unassailable places like Plymouth, Coventry and Hull which greatly hinder any advance from his lands into ours.”</p><p>“Very true”, Stephen agreed.</p><p>“Whereas every time I try to advance into your lands, Ste....”</p><p>“Uncle Jamie! Stop it!”</p><p>The soldier sniggered at his honorary nephew's discomfiture, but stopped his teasing. For now....</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>June 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“Well, being ruled over by a four-year-old does not seem to have hindered the French all that much”, Jamie said the following day. “They have won a great victory over the Spanish at Rocroi, on the border with the Spanish Netherlands.”</p><p>Stephen groaned. His lover had 'advanced into his lands' several times the previous evening, and had easily overcome any resistance. Not that there had been much resistance, and it had been worth his son's epic eye-roll this morning when he had limped into the dining-room and had arguably taken a longish time to sit down.</p><p>Lord but it felt glorious, even if certain muscles were no longer on speaking terms with his brain!</p><p>“So the German wars go merrily on”, he sighed, wincing at how loud his voice sounded even though he was talking in barely a whisper.</p><p>“Would you like some bacon, sir?” Luke said in what his father considered a maliciously loud voice. Almost as annoying as a lover's smirk across the table, which would have made Stephen scowl at him if he had any energy left.</p><p>“Please”, he said.</p><p>His son got him a plate of food and placed it before him, again far too noisily for the nobleman's liking. He fell to the offering like it was his last meal on earth, which given what Jamie had whispered to him earlier about his plans for the coming evening, it might well be!</p><p>“And I have some of that new drink up from Oxford”, Jamie grinned. “Coffee they call it. Said to very good for people who are not feeling quite one hundred per cent.”</p><p>“I doubt that my father is feeling anything much just now!” said someone who was one snarky comment away from being disinherited.</p><p>Stephen made the mistake of raising his head to glare at the two reprobates, then winced as the movement made his eyes water. Instead he just grunted and turned to this strange new drink which was bitter but at least kept him occupied from the smirking ha'p'orths in the room. Harrumph!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) It almost certainly was tuberculosis, and the new king king would go on to have the longest reign this far of any European monarch thus far (72 years), becoming known as the Sun-King and dominating the Continent before he made the mistake of crossing swords with his old enemy across the Channel.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>2) In spite of her name she was the daughter of the Hapsburg King Philip the Third of Spain. Her marriage to the late French king had not been a success; in the first two decades there had been four stillborn children and only the late arrival of Louis and Philippe saved the day. During her regency she unexpectedly held to France's alliance with the Protestant powers of Sweden and Germany against her own Catholic family.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Pressing Matters</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>John Pym makes yet another timely discovery of the king's secret dealings with the Irish, which helps him both raise more money and speeds negotiations with the Scots to get them into the war on parliament's side. Unfortunately his efforts to curb the presses of London are less successful and worse, he loses one of his chief supporters in a minor skirmish not far from Stalwarton. Meanwhile Jamie is once again off helping the war effort, which means another storming return and another bout of Luke having to sleep wearing ear-plugs despite his room being as far away from theirs as possible. Sigh.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>June 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Lucius Stephen Amerike tried. He really did. But sometimes his father was just so..... honestly!</p><p>“He has only been gone a few hours”, he sighed as he went through the tedious estate accounts with Chatton.</p><p>The young steward smiled knowingly.</p><p>“You have never loved as he has, master”, he said. “Or as I. Even though I know that Fray is on the estate, I miss him like a lost limb all day and part of me aches for him. And when we come together of an evening...”</p><p>He stopped, smiling at the death-glare that the boy was giving him.</p><p>“It is bad enough that Father and Uncle Jamie take every opportunity to traumatize me”, he grumbled. “You had better not start!”</p><p>“We are at war, master”, the steward reminded him. “Though I would wager that they never say as much in your presence and 'specially around young Master Edward, they both know that every time Mr. Buchanan rides off there is the possibility that he may not return. Or worse, be captured.”</p><p>“How could being captured be worse than death?” Luke demanded.</p><p>“Because if that happens, your father will move heaven and earth to get him back”, Chatton said wisely. “One of the rules of society is the richer a man is, the more enemies he attracts to his person. It is not just Mr. Stark serving with Prince Rupert; many of the other local nobles do not like that he is so popular with his people. And they, of course, are not.”</p><p>“Jealousy, I suppose”, Luke sighed. “Some men!”</p><p>“How would you react if someone stole away Miss Anne?” the steward asked slyly.</p><p>Luke flinched.</p><p>“They would be meeting their Maker very soon after!” he growled.</p><p>“And that is how my Lord Amerike feels about Mr. Buchanan”, Chatton said. “With the added strain of their having to hide their love from the world.”</p><p>“But so do you”, Luke pointed out.</p><p>“It is different for men of our class”, Chatton smiled. “Besides, everyone on the estate thinks that I am the young idiot who can never grasp anything and whose incompetence is slowly driving poor Fray to drink!”</p><p>Luke smiled at that.</p><p>“Whereas”, the steward said slyly, “every evening I grasp his....”</p><p>And there was the death-glare again! The young steward chuckled but got back to his accounts.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>June 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“Confirmation bias.”</p><p>Luke looked at his father in confusion. Clearly being apart from his lover for any length of time had rendered him even stranger than usual, which was some achievement. Adults!</p><p>“Pardon, sir?” he said.</p><p>“This thing with the king and the Irish”, Stephen explained. “You know that Charles Stuart is one of the most ardent Anglicans in the kingdom. I know it. But the efforts of Laud have made many suspect that he has quietly yielded to his wife's faith and is nudging the Three Kingdoms back towards Catholicism while hoping his efforts so to do will remain undetected. His own actions of late have only served to confirm that.”</p><p>“He did try to raise an army against the Irish rebels”, Luke pointed out.</p><p>“Yes”, Stephen said, “but everyone will say that that was solely so that he could use it against parliament, which we both know he would have done given half a chance. He took those supplies destined for Ireland when he was at Chester, which was quickly and perhaps rightly reported as his helping the Catholic rebels. Then there was the way he reacted to the Irish revolt; he took over a month to condemn it and call them rebels whereas the Protestant Scots were so named within a week; people notice things like that. Add to that this latest letter showing his dealings with the Confederates, and I can guarantee what most people in London will say.”</p><p>“'We told you so'”, Luke sighed. His father nodded.</p><p>“Exactly”, the nobleman said. “I will give you that Pym likely sat on it for several weeks and only brought it out just before his latest call for money, but that does not make it any the less true, or any the less damaging for the king.”</p><p>“Uncle Jamie has not written yet, then”, the boy said.</p><p>“He said that he would do so when he had looked over Bristol”, Stephen said, “after which he is going on to Gloucester. He will then circle round and come through Chipping Norton; we are as you know funding the guards there which is important after we regained control of Stratford up the road. How did you know that he has not written to us?”</p><p>Luke shook his head at him.</p><p>“You would have that sappy smile on your face if he had”, he said. </p><p>Stephen blushed. His son knew him too well!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>June 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“I feared as much”, Stephen sighed. “Pym had written to me that he is setting up an official censor to curb all these news-sheets.”</p><p>“You mean the Royalist ones like <i>Mercurius Aulicus</i>”, Luke said with a smile. “Do you think that it will work?”</p><p>“Not a chance”, Stephen said. “The printers know that the odds of them being caught are low especially as the likes of <i>Aulicus</i> are mostly printed down in Oxford and shipped to London, although I hear that some copies or close copies are now being printed in the capital. Worse, it makes us look like tyrants, which is the last thing that we want.”</p><p>Luke looked at him expectantly.</p><p>“You are getting too sharp for a boy your age”, Stephen sighed. “Yes, Jamie wrote me from Bristol. He thinks its defences reasonable but undermanned, and that a big enough army might take it especially the likes of the formidable Cornish who are moving up from the west. As I said we cannot resupply it by sea, worse luck.”</p><p>“So the king might be marching on London again”, Luke said. “Worrisome.”</p><p>“Yes”, Stephen said. “Things do not look good.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>June 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>A week or so later things looked considerably worse. Not just because Jamie either had not written from Gloucester or, more likely, his letter had gone astray, but because of the news from a dozen or so miles to the south-east.</p><p>“This is all we need!” Stephen grumbled. “Hampden was a key moderate as well as a decent army man, and to throw his life away because of one of Prince Rupert's raids¹.... damnation!”</p><p>Luke suspected that it was his father's lover's lack of communication that was the real reason for his angst, but had the sense not to say as much. Fortunately a distraction arrived when Edward came hurrying into the room.</p><p>“Sorry to disturb you, sir”, he said politely, “but I have just returned from Chipping Norton.”</p><p>Stephen stared at his charge in surprise.</p><p>“I thought that you were just going out for a short ride with Fraser?” he asked.</p><p>“He said how concerned you were at Mr. Buchanan's late return”, the boy explained, “so I decided to ride out to our holdings in the north to see if they had news of him. They had something better – he was there himself!”</p><p>Luke winced as his father's eyes lit up. That was rather more than the reaction of a man for his mother's ward. Fortunately the boy did not seem to notice it. </p><p>“Is he all right?” Luke said quickly.</p><p>“He has a badly sprained ankle, such that he cannot ride until it is healed”, Edward explained. “He got there yesterday and wrote you a letter at once, sir, but they only pass them on twice a week. I brought it with me.”</p><p>He handed the latter to Stephen, who sniffed as he accepted it.</p><p>“Thank you, sir”, he said. “I am right glad to know that he is well.”</p><p>“He wanted me to have a cart sent to bring him back”, Edward said, “but his ankle really is bad so I said no. He did not like that of course, but I was firm. The town doctor said that he can travel in a week's time.”</p><p>“I am mightily relieved that we still have him”, Stephen smiled. “Thank you again, Edward.”</p><p>The boy bowed and left.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>June 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Luke did not say as much, especially given how on edge his father was because of recent events, but he was increasingly coming to suspect that young Edward Stark had pretty much pieced together the true nature of the relationship between his father and Uncle Jamie. Especially when the boy asked if he might make a trip to London over the weekend that the soldier was due back.</p><p>Stalwarton Hall was a small place but fortunately his father's room was on the eastern side of the building and Luke had long ensured that his bedroom was on the far western side, physically as far away as he could get. Even so he still felt nervous when he had to use the main staircase halfway between the two leading down to the ground floor, and tried not to think..... this was his own father, damnation!</p><p>Even so, the boy was impressed that his father stayed in his and his lover's room for the whole day after Uncle Jamie's return. And he may have been quietly pleased when the soldier thanked him during his brief visit downstairs to collect food before fairly sprinting back up to..... that.</p><p>Adults!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) The Battle of Chalgrove Field. It had been precipitated by the defection of Sir John Urry (or Hurry) to the Royalists, which enabled Prince Rupert to forestall their attempts to intercept an important convoy bound for Oxford. This would be the first of three changes of sides for Urry.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Treachery And Torment</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Jamie's homecoming is cut short when disaster is narrowly averted in the North and he has to head off again to sort things out.. Fortunately he is soon back and leaving his lover yet again unable to sit down without wincing (and also having to put up with smirking descendants he could well do without!). Meanwhile the war seems to be going very much in the king's favour especially when his forces win a major victory in the West, only to have it ruined by a Big Bang.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>June 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Luke only had to confirm one decision while his father was 'otherwise engaged', when Fraser told him that the recent hot weather was making the river so low that the mill down towards King's Linton was barely working. Fortunately his father had covered such an eventuality by arranging to reduce or even stop the flow of water into the Hall's ornamental lake; as he said, it was more important that the local people got their bread than he had a pool of water to look at every morning. </p><p>His son reflected wryly that few landowners these days would have been so considerate.</p><p>Finally his father made it downstairs, leaning heavily on Uncle Jamie and most definitely listing while his lover arranged the couch for him. Onto which he took the best part of a minute to sit down. Luke just about managed to avoid rolling his eyes but it was close.</p><p>“There have been a few minor developments in the war, sir”, the boy said, smiling to himself as his wreckage of a father looked suspiciously at him in case he started smirking at his less than coherent state. “The king has made the Earl of Newcastle a Marquess.”</p><p>“Arguably a deserved promotion”, Jamie said. “He is a decent enough soldier although he tends to vanity when away from the battlefield. But it is good that he has got what he deserved.”</p><p>He looked pointedly at his lover, who blushed. Luke just knew that the bastard was thinking about someone else 'getting what he deserved'. Honestly!</p><p>“I am afraid that those reports about Mr. Hampden were indeed accurate”, the boy said, glaring reprovingly at the soldier. “He died six days after the clash at Chalgrove Field. The only small piece of good news was that Prince Rupert narrowly missed the convoy carrying money to our troops that he was after.”</p><p>“That will mean a lot more weight on poor Pym's shoulders”, Stephen sighed, wincing as he tried to find a comfortable position. “Hampden was one of the few supporters of Essex, who for all his failings is at least a leader of sorts.”</p><p>“Hardly an inspirational one”, Jamie scoffed. “Everyone knows he always carries his coffin around with him every time he goes into battle. That is being a little too prepared – although I suppose that some men like being prepared.”</p><p>He quite deliberately licked his lips as he looked at Stephen, who shuddered.</p><p>“Ahem!”</p><p>Luke glared at both the reprobates. His father blushed again but of course Jamie looked unabashed.</p><p>“And Prince Rupert has raided the town of Wycombe¹, halfway to London”, Luke went on. “Mr. Pym said that the men of London stood to their arms all night as a result.”</p><p>“Some men can keep it up all night”, Jamie said with a smile.</p><p>Luke just gave up! These two!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>June 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Unfortunately for Stephen, his reunion with his lover was short and sweet (as well as sore!). Just a day after he had made it downstairs a message arrived for Jamie.</p><p>“All hell is threatening to break loose in the North”, the soldier said, pulling his sword on. “Cromwell sent word that young Hotham was suspected of scheming with his father to change sides; he was captured, escaped, then captured again; word will surely reach his father would then immediately hand over Hull. And with the Queen almost next door in York, she will be able to take full advantage.”</p><p>“Why does Cromwell not go to Hull himself?” Stephen asked, trying not to move too much. Even some days after his lover's enthusiastic return, his body still hurt. And said lover still smirked far too much every time he exclaimed in pain, damn the villain!</p><p>“Your future in-law knows that for once, he is part of the problem”, Jamie said. “Old Hotham has become jealous of both his successes across the Humber – he relies on northern Lindsey for some of his supplies – and he resents his Yorkshire rival Fairfax. The Hothams have always put self first, and if the old man heard that Cromwell was coming – which of course he would have done; news always reaches those one does not wish it to sooner rather than later – he would have accelerated his traitorous plans. Also our friend is worried about rumours of Royalist uprisings in some of the towns in East Anglia, an area that we cannot afford to lose. No, I shall ride quickly and be there before old Hotham knows I am coming. He still professes loyalty so he can hardly refuse me without declaring his treachery, and while he is unsure about his son's late return he will not do that.”</p><p>Stephen sighed but nodded.</p><p>“Besides”, Jamie said, grinning mischievously, “that means I will soon have another 'happy return' here. Probably in just a few days; Cromwell is asking Pym to send some men up from London so once we have enough of us there we can arrest him and I can come home. After which I will be coming home to  – and in – you, my love.”</p><p>That deserved, and got, a major eye-roll. Even if that too hurt his lover's still aching body. And in a few days.....</p><p>Stephen shuddered, despite the summer heat.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>July 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!”</p><p>Jamie's dash to Hull had resulted in an even shorter absence that Stephen had feared, for one day after his lover's reaching the port, the promised men had arrived from London. So the soldier had been released to come back south after only a few days, which was why Stephen once again ached in places that men really should not be aching in.</p><p>Lord but it felt <i>glorious!</i></p><p>“Good morning, Father!” said some malicious possibly-son of his who was pushing his luck even given a certain nobleman's maybe less than perfect state. “Good to see you up at last.”</p><p>“Yes, your father enjoys being 'up'”, Jamie grinned from his chair where he looked annoyingly unaffected after the events of the previous day. Stephen would have scowled at him, but he was not sure that he had the energy.</p><p>“Uncle Jamie!” Luke said warningly. “There is a child present.”</p><p>“You are just weeks away from a major step towards being a man², so do not try that one”, the soldier smiled. “Your father on the other hand is all man!”</p><p>The boy shook his head at him, but smiled. Stephen limped the last few thousand miles to his chair with only one or two(ish) exclamations of pain, and sat down very, very carefully.</p><p>“Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow.....aaah!”</p><p>The nobleman wondered if those Puritans in parliament might be persuaded to pass a law to make smirking illegal. It would certainly have received his wholehearted support!</p><p>“You said that something happened up there the day you left”, he said, relieved that he still had the power of speech. “What was it again?”</p><p>“I suppose being fucked while doing a hand-stand might have made you less than attentive”, Jamie said blithely, earning himself a glare from Luke. “I am afraid that Fairfax was defeated at a place called Adwalton Moor. The West Riding is pretty much lost and he has thrown himself into Hull. At least we still have Hull plus the Hothams are safely in gaol; the elder one did try to betray the city but luckily his men were having none of it.”</p><p>Stephen nodded, then winced.</p><p>“More concerning is the news from the West this morning”, Jamie said. “But I told you that over breakfast.”</p><p>He leered lasciviously at his lover, who glared at him. The soldier knew full well that 'breakfast' had started with a blow-job that had left him so wrecked, his lover had had to hold an absurdly heavy plate for him while he had eaten. And judging from his son's sharp look, he had pretty much figured out what had been meant there too.</p><p>“Remind me”, Stephen said.</p><p>Jamie smirked again but did so.</p><p>“Hopton has been sniffing around Bristol again”, he said. “He has marched his Cornishmen across two counties now; it says something for his leadership that he has gotten them so far. If the king can take Bristol and the Gloucester, it would make his position stronger in so many ways. The Severn would be open up to traffic and trade helping to solve his cash problems, and he would find it much easier to get recruits from Wales.”</p><p>“Is not the army under Maurice³, Rupert's brother?” Stephen asked, yawning for some reason.</p><p>There was a definite hesitation before his lover's answer which, predictably, came with another smirk.</p><p>“Yes, but he has the sense to defer to Hopton's greater military ability”, he said. “At least for now; you know as well as I do that men prefer to be led by nobility which is one reason we are stuck with Essex.”</p><p>“Prince Maurice is barely four years older than me”, Luke said. “But then the young have so much more energy.”</p><p>Stephen stared suspiciously at his son. He did not believe that innocent look for one minute!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>July 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>A few days later Jamie's fears about the West were proven right, if with an unexpected addendum.</p><p>“Hopton has won a great victory at a place called Lansdown, near Bath”, he said.</p><p>Stephen looked sharply at his lover. He could tell from his tone that there was more to what had happened than a straightforward victory.</p><p>“But?” he pressed.</p><p>“Two things help to leaven the disaster”, Jamie said. “First, Hopton was badly injured when one of his gunpowder carts⁴ exploded just after the battle. Not fatally they say, but he is partly blinded. And his Cornishmen took a heavy beating⁵ in securing the victory.”</p><p>Stephen was not surprised at that. The current matchlock rifles required soldiers to maintain a lit fuse at all times, and a load of them wandering around among men and badly-stored gunpowder.... that sort of thing was bound to happen sooner rather than later.</p><p>“A Pyrrhic victory”, Luke said sagely.</p><p>“Maybe”, Jamie conceded. “But only if Waller can take advantage of his friend's misfortune and finish off his army before he can get reinforcements. Things are suddenly moving a lot faster.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. A small place on the main road through the Chilterns just over halfway between London and Oxford, it was one of the few to gain from the war as it served as an unofficial clearing house between the lands controlled by king and parliament. Traders would have passes to cover both halves of their journeys, and the town benefited as a result.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>2) Legally coming of age was still twenty-one – a certain Oliver Cromwell had suffered his financial difficulties of the previous decade partly because his father had died when he himself was only eighteen – but boys could and often did marry at fourteen and girls at twelve.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>3) Prince Maurice (b. 1621), the king's nephew and Rupert's immediate younger brother. He was only twenty-two at this time, and had won the recent victory at Ripple Field.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>4) Armies of the time were greatly slowed by their baggage-trains, in particular the number of horses needed to move the heavy and often ineffectual guns. Soldiers would often target an opponent's train because capturing it would render them ineffectual, and more prosaically because of the loot available.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>5) The king would later lose his Cornish contingent after the storming of Bristol. One reason for this was cultural; the westerners came to suspect, possibly with some justification, they they were being used as cannon-fodder. They had also lost their most inspirational leaders there and at Lansdown.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Fake News</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>After a watery interlude in which young Edward Stark again proves rather devious, disaster strikes parliament in the West, first at 'Runaway Down' in Wiltshire and then as the key port of Bristol is lost. Meanwhile Kent is in revolt threatening London from the rear (yes, a certain Oxfordshire nobleman knows all about threats from the rear!) while the Earl of Essex is sulking. Again. Fortunately the king overestimates his strength and parliament gets a respite – for now......</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>July 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen had grown increasingly concerned not just about the worrisome situation in the West but also the one some yards from the Hall. Despite virtually draining the lake at the back of the place, the level of the Sewell had continued to fall and it was now down to little more than a stream. For the people who depended on it for their water supply, that was serious.</p><p>Worse was the fact that Stephen knew the cause of the river's poor state. The owner of Remington Castle, the next estate upstream from Stalwarton, had decided that he wanted a lake like that of his neighbours (but larger, of course) and had drained away much of the water including stopping off one of the springs that fed a feeder stream. And to cap it all the villain in charge of the place, Lord Grayland, was in good odour with the king.</p><p>Or at least he had been, until young Edward Stark had gotten to work on the problem.</p><p>“How did you find that out?” Stephen asked. The boy had written up a report from a book which stated that low river levels bred all sorts of diseases, and was almost certainly behind the recent outbreak that had hit the royal camps north of the university city leading to many men becoming unfit to fight.</p><p>“I did not, sir.”</p><p>Stephen looked at his charge in confusion. The boy shrugged his slender shoulders.</p><p>“I have seen that people believe much that is told them by experts”, he said, “even if those experts do not have a clue what they are talking about. I merely sent the king what I said that I had read in a book that I had borrowed from the university's library, which suggested that Lord Grayland's actions in reducing the water-levels in the river were almost certainly responsible for his losing so many men.”</p><p>Stephen stared at him in surprise.</p><p>“You made it up?” he asked.</p><p>“There probably is a study somewhere that says something like that”, the boy said carefully. “And I did make sure to put in that 'almost certainly' as a qualifier. Science is an uncertain field, after all.”</p><p>Stephen shook his head at the boy but smiled. His neighbour had been instructed by the king to abandon his lake scheme which would help the river situation, although he himself might keep a sharper eye on his charge in future. The boy might end up selling coals to Newcastle¹ if he was not careful!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>July 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>The second week of that month saw events moving suddenly much faster. It began with bad news from the West, made worse by the fact that it was unexpected.</p><p>“Damnation!” Stephen ground out. “Waller has been defeated at The Devizes in Wiltshire!”</p><p>Luke looked at his father in surprise.</p><p>“I thought you said that he had Hopton pinned down there?” he asked.</p><p>“Pinned down and still half-blind after his encounter with that gunpowder”, Stephen sighed. “Unfortunately he managed to get his cavalry away under Prince Maurice, and they rode to the king at Oxford for help. It says something for that young prince that despite a night in the saddle he rode back with them, and they charged straight into Waller's men on Roundway Down, just north of the town.”</p><p>“I suppose that he had withdrawn to avoid being surrounded”, Luke said.</p><p>“Out of the frying-pan but into the fire, as it turned out”, Stephen sighed. “The bulk of his men retreated straight over a cliff-edge and were killed or seriously wounded. The Royalist newspapers are already calling it 'Runaway Down'. That cuts the west off from London; there is nothing to stop Rupert advancing on Bristol now. And Jamie said that Waller had drawn off many of the city's defenders to replenish his army after Lansdown.”</p><p>“Sir William Waller does not seem to be living up to his nickname of William the Conqueror”, Luke observed. “Although I am sure that the Earl of Essex will not be gloating at that development, as such a thing would be totally beneath a noble of his standing.”</p><p>The boy was good, Stephen thought, keeping a straight face when coming out with a line like that.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>July 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>The following morning Stephen was surprised when there was a knock at his bedroom door. The Hall's few servants knew better than to disturb their master, and Luke had still not forgiven them both from that time he had charged in to find Jamie going hard at it – and still hard going at it despite the interruption, the villain! Who could it be?</p><p>“My lord?”</p><p>“It is only Chatton”, Jamie sighed, getting out of their bed and crossing to the door. Stephen may or may not have leered at that perfect arse which someone was shaking a touch more than necessary, but there was no-one to see him do it so he did not. </p><p>Jamie admitted the steward who blushed at finding them both naked.</p><p>“I am sure you have seen much the same with Fraser”, Jamie said affably. “What is so important that you felt the need to disturb our slumbers, Chatton?”</p><p>Stephen looked across at the clock and reddened slightly. It was a quarter past nine and they were not up. Well, Jamie was 'up' because he was Jamie, making the young steward blush even more.</p><p>“I went out to get water from the stream that runs behind our cottage”, Chatton said, seeming to find the bedroom floorboards fascinating. “I was close to the main road and there was a large procession heading north along it. It was the king!”</p><p>Jamie whistled at that.</p><p>“So the rumours were true”, Stephen said. “We knew that the queen was crossing the Midlands to bring all those weapons to her husband, and he has gone to meet her.”</p><p>“And all those weapons will be useful for when they start sweeping the Severn”, Jamie said. “There might even be enough left over for an attack on London before winter.”</p><p>“The king still has to best Essex's army”, Stephen said. “But I fear that he just might. Jamie, put some clothes on!”</p><p>“Why?” his lover asked innocently. “I am sure that I have nothing that Chatton has not seen on Fraser?”</p><p>“Actually he is bigger”, the young steward smiled. “And luckily he believes that it is better to give than to receive!”</p><p>Stephen sighed. He was surrounded by sex maniacs and.... why was Jamie looking at him like that again? It was past nine, damnation!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>Ah well, another morning not wasted.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>July 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“I shall have to go to London. Today.”</p><p>Jamie nodded at his lover's words.</p><p>“Pym has asked for you?” he asked.</p><p>“Not in so many words, but he needs me”, Stephen said. “The place is in a mess; Kent is in revolt, the people are tired of endless taxation for what seems to them a losing war, and the peace party is getting steadily stronger. Some of them want to deal with the king even if it means the most abject of surrenders.”</p><p>“Captain Amerike, riding to the rescue!” Jamie grinned. “Though now I recall, it was actually me who did the riding last night!”</p><p>Stephen blushed fiercely.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>“It does not help that Essex is sulking again”, Stephen said as they readied to mount their horses for the journey to the capital (a certain nobleman somewhat carefully, it might be said). “I can see why he is unhappy; his army is underfed and underpaid yet he is still expected to defend the capital.”</p><p>Jamie looked at his lover shrewdly.</p><p>“They also say that he is of the peace faction”, he said, “and so might not want to totally destroy a king he wishes to serve under as regent in all but name.”</p><p>“His caution has made him many enemies”, Stephen admitted, “but we cannot lose him now. No army throws away its top commanders in the middle of a war.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>Ah.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>August 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Westminster, Middlesex, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>The news when they finally reached the capital was bad. In fact it could hardly have been worse.</p><p>“Prince Rupert has assaulted Bristol”, Stephen told Jamie when he returned from parliament. “He was beaten off with much loss – they say that the famous Cornish regiments were decimated – but the town's defences have been breached. They will surely surrender at the next push.”</p><p>“How was your friend Pym?” Jamie asked.</p><p>“Worse”, Stephen sighed. “Whatever is attacking him, it is slowly winning. I think from his words that he knows his time is short and is desperately trying to get us into a position where we can still hold out. At least he had some help from the king of all people.”</p><p>“How so?” his lover asked.</p><p>“His reply in the latest peace talks was far too aggressive”, Stephen said. “A conciliatory approach promising to respect the rights of London might well have secured him a strong party in the city; instead they fear him and his potential vengeance on them the more. That is the only good news, though.”</p><p>“You had a letter from your unlovely younger brother”, Jamie said. “I recall that you last wrote to him from here so presumably he thinks that here you still are.”</p><p>“A good example of absence making the heart grow less loathing towards”, Stephen grumbled. “What did he want this time?”</p><p>“Just the usual demands for money 'from a brother to a brother'”, Jamie said. “He did have one small piece of news that I have not heard elsewhere; he says that four of the colonies are banding together to form a confederation² against their colonial and Red Indian enemies.”</p><p>“They are about as likely to work with each other as the king is with this parliament!” Stephen snorted.</p><p>“You do not mind me opening your brother's letter?” Jamie asked.</p><p>Stephen smiled.</p><p>“I have no secrets from you, my love.”</p><p>“Very true”, Jamie agreed. “But I had better make sure of that, to be on the safe side. I think our bed awaits?”</p><p>The nobleman grinned and followed his lover upstairs.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) An expression akin to selling sand to the Arabs. The coal-mines around and north of Newcastle provided almost all London's coal, which was yet another problem for parliament as the county was at this time largely for the king. Parliament had long ago passed pollution restrictions on the use of coal-burning in factories – but only in and around Westminster and other royal palaces, for some strange reason!</i>
  <br/>
  <i>2) The New England Confederation comprising the colonies of Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, Plymouth and Saybrook. It was ultimately unsuccessful as the colonies used it to try to grab land off each other as well as not helping out when asked, but it was the first move towards some sort of colonial union.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Backs Against The Wall</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The war hangs in the balance as the king mulls his next move – secure the Severn or lunge towards London? But in the moment of crisis the capital rallies to the defence of its sister city, and to the horror of the peace party a huge new army is raised for the Earl of Essex to march to its relief. If he can get there in time, of course....</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>August 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Westminster, Middlesex, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen heaved a huge sigh of relief, and not just because his lover was allowing him some recovery time after last night. Since the houses that the family used were supported food-wise by the Palace opposite on whose grounds they sat – luckily that had not ended with the king's absence – they only needed servants to come in during the day, which was good.</p><p>It also enabled some horn-dog of a soldier to 'christen' every room in the houses by fucking his lover in every damn one of them. Even that small cupboard under the stairs; how had Stephen Roger Amerike ended up with such a wonderfully flexible lover?</p><p>“It seems that we have been lucky in some ways”, the nobleman said, relieved to find out that his voice still worked. “The king's fabled Cornish regiments were indeed all but wiped out at Bristol, and although the port is lost it has burned up some of the fighting months. Also the king's mishandling of the capital has swung supporters away from the peace party; even Essex has withdrawn his complaints.”</p><p>“As a soldier I can tell you that he has a lot to complain about”, Jamie said, eyeing his lover's broken body and clearly gaining far too much pleasure from the shudder at the threat of further molestation. “He has had to quarter his men on the people of the home counties, an arrangement which might save your fellow members of parliament from having to open their wallets and terrify those poor moths, but is liked by no-one.”</p><p>“I know that Pym is trying to get this new purchase tax through to help pay for the Scots to enter the war”, Stephen said, glaring at his sassy lover. “An excise he calls it; I think that it is a Dutch word which makes sense knowing that nation. I only wish that he might somehow recover; I do not know who will take over when he is gone.”</p><p>“You think him doomed?” Jamie asked.</p><p>“He confided in me that the doctors have said he will not see the year out”, Stephen said. “His obvious replacement in the Commons is Holles, one of the Five Members, but he is far too closely linked with the peace party and seems to have lost any enthusiasm for the war after his regiment got mauled at Brentford last year. There is St. John, but he is dour and generally depressing for all he is so clever. Young Harry Vane is more popular and more pro-war, but I always feel that I want to count my fingers after shaking hands with him.”</p><p>“With good reason, given his treachery over Strafford”, Jamie agreed. “What about Cromwell?”</p><p>“He is still just a minor cavalry commander in the east under Manchester, for all that his men are fast gathering a good reputation”, Stephen said. “And his religious devotions frighten many who think him a fanatic. Besides, unlike Vane he is out in the field so can hardly attend parliament as well. No, there will be a short pause for the king to gather his strength, then....”</p><p>Jamie looked at him curiously.</p><p>“You do not think that he will march on London?” he asked. “I know that it would be risky, but surely he understands that the longer the war goes on, the more the moneys will tell against him especially as we hold the richest counties in England. His supporters cannot keep selling their lands to raise money for him forever.”</p><p>“Remember how cautious he was after Edgehill?” Stephen said. “He had a chance then, with Essex behind him and the road to London open. I fear that he may instead move on our last holding in his current area, Gloucester. It is only a small place and would benefit him greatly.”</p><p>“Small but well-defended”, Jamie said. “I know that Massey is young, but he is a sound man and his city is tightly packed in its walls. Although I would not rate his chances against a full-on assault.”</p><p>“That is, if the king has the men for that after Bristol”, Stephen said. “And the stomach. We shall soon know either way.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>August 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Westminster, Middlesex, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>It was their last day in London, and if someone repeated what he had done the previous night then it might well be not far short of Stephen's last day on earth! And he was not helped by Diana coming round with some news and his having to receive her while sat on three cushions.</p><p>“I have news from your soon to be in-laws”, she said with a far too knowing smile even for her. “Cromwell has won a minor victory at Gainsborough in the west of Lincolnshire but has had to retreat before Newcastle's advance.”</p><p>“The Marquess is targeting East Anglia, as we feared he might”, Stephen sighed.</p><p>“Not completely”, she said. “He has left a considerable force besieging Hull, much more than would be needed just to block it in. Yet he has failed to set up guns on the Lincolnshire bank of the Humber, so your ships can still supply Fairfax.”</p><p>Stephen noted the 'your'.</p><p>“You take the king's side in this contention?” he asked.</p><p>“I think that I rather take the Crown's side”, she said. “I think that the institution of monarchy is still the best solution for this time in our nation's history, even if this particular monarch has all the organizational abilities of a mushroom!”</p><p>The nobleman smiled at that.</p><p>“You might care to keep an eye on your charge's uncle as well, when you get back to Oxfordshire”, she said. “The word is that Mr. Anthony Stark has again been praised to the king by Prince Rupert, which is rare indeed from a man of whom kind words for others are an alien concept.”</p><p>That Stephen knew to be true, for despite the prince's evident abilities there were many reports of others at court resenting his success. And as his visitor had pointed out, that might or might not be just jealousy – it likely was – but that did not detract from the number of enemies being made by someone who was only rarely at court as he strove to win the war for his uncle.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>August 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>It took full four days to travel home, partly because a certain nobleman found riding a horse extremely painful. Then there was the celebratory 'welcome home sex which, Jamie claimed, was obligatory (for some reason Stephen had not felt inclined to challenge him on this), Thankfully about a week after their return the nobleman had recovered just as news from the capital caught up with them.</p><p>“I knew that that would happen”, Stephen sighed. “After Bristol some of the smaller garrisons would be bound to capitulate. The king has won most of Dorsetshire without having to even fight for it; Dorchester, Weymouth, Melcombe¹ and Poole have all surrendered to him so we now hold only the port of Lyme in the west of the county.”</p><p>“Yet you seem cheered”, Jamie observed. “What else has happened?”</p><p>“One of those strange things that show how little one can predict what Mankind will do in a given situation”, Stephen said. “One might have thought that the king's turning on little Gloucester would have further dispirited things in the capital, but instead the Trained Bands have rallied and agreed to march to their relief. Although it will need a miracle to get them there in time; we all know how slowly an army moves² these days.”</p><p>“That is because so many of them still make the mistake of thinking that the lumbering artillery is worth it”, Jamie said. “They may be good for morale but little else; one day we shall see someone in this country ditch them and show what can be done by a leader of great ability. The great Gustavus Adolphus had the idea when he restricted himself to light artillery only, and was able to run rings around his opponents as a result.”</p><p>Stephen nodded.</p><p>“This is interesting”, he said. “Hertford has gotten his candidate chosen as governor of Poole, another young fellow called Anthony Ashley Cooper³. That is most curious; I know that Prince Rupert had his eye on that for one of his own men.”</p><p>“I do not know Cooper”, Jamie said. “Hertford; that is William Seymour⁴, is it not?”</p><p>“Yes”, Stephen said. “I am surprised that the king trusts him given that he has a claim to the English throne from the Tudors, but then he is one of the richest men in the kingdom so he can likely not afford to not trust him. Although he is one of those men I once heard described as 'excellent, provided you are on the other side'. He has a great appreciation of his own talents that he does not let a little thing like reality get in the way of!”</p><p>“Miaow!”</p><p>“Catty but true”, Stephen said.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>August 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Luke frowned over the latest news-sheet.</p><p>“I did not know that 'malignant' was a noun these days, sir”, he said to Stephen. “What do they mean, pray?”</p><p>“It is parliament's way of classifying those who support the king”, his father said. “Malignants are people who are considered deliberately evil in pursuing their ends, while delinquents are those led or sometimes forced into opposition to us.”</p><p>“And nothing at all to do with the size of their estates and the amount of money which might be extracted from them if we win this contention”, Jamie snipped. “Dear me no!”</p><p>Stephen smiled at his lover's snark.</p><p>“It may”, he conceded, “but in any conflict half the trouble is sorting out the mess afterwards. The country will be broke, much poorer, and there will be all sorts of enmities flaring up from Northumberland right down to Cornwall.”</p><p>“Those reports about the Cornish were right, by the way”, Jamie said. “I thought that it might be a bluff to try to gull us, but it was not. That may be why the king is reluctant to force the issue at Gloucester, fear of a repeat of the bloody scenes at Bristol. There is no point getting at all those extra men in south Wales if he loses even more trying to reach them.”</p><p>“What else can the king do, then?” Luke asked. “He will surely not want to waste time besieging the place. That could take ages!”</p><p>“He may try and mine his way into the place”, Jamie said. “That would be difficult given the river and the ground, but not impossible. Or once his heavy guns arrive he might try to batter the place into submission. I doubt that he will succeed; when I went around the place I was struck by just how Puritanical they all were. Which means that a quasi-Catholic army rolling up at their walls will be resisted with everything they have.”</p><p>“Very true”, Stephen agreed.</p><p>“Of course, not every drive forwards meets <i>stiff</i> resistance!” Jamie grinned.</p><p>Stephen rolled his eyes at his lover. Luke looked between the two of them and sighed.</p><p>“Honestly!” he exclaimed. “The sooner I am married and out of here, the better!”</p><p>Jamie chuckled.</p><p>“You might still hear us from your house down in Hampton if I really....” </p><p>“Uncle Jamie, damnation!”</p><p>The soldier smiled but dropped the subject.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) Melcombe Regis, then a separate port facing Weymouth across the bay. It was infamous as the likely entry-point into England of the Black Death in 1348. The combined borough with Weymouth (since 1580) made them so important that they elected four members of parliament each until the 1832 Great Reform Act reduced it to two; in 1885 the area became part of what is today (2021) the South Dorset constituency. Melcombe was finally merged into its neighbour in 1920.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>2) It would take Essex's army ten days to march the one hundred miles to Gloucester, so at a rate of about ten miles per day. Impressive for those times.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>3) Anthony Ashley Cooper (b. 1621). Initially a supporter of parliament, his marriage had made him switch sides in 1642, but he would change back in 1644 because (he claimed) of the king's preference for Catholics.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>4) William Seymour (b. 1588), the great-great-nephew of Henry The Eighth's third wife Jane. He was also the grandson of Katherine Grey, Henry's great-niece, which meant that he was a blood claimant to the English throne. He had temporarily strengthened this claim through a disastrous marriage in 1610 to his third cousin and rival claimant Arbella Stuart which had led to both of them being imprisoned in the Tower of London, but after her death in 1615 he had worked his way back into favour. His own line died out but as of 2021 his distant cousin John Seymour (b. 1952) holds the dukedom of Somerset.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Divine Intervention</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The king may have his Divine Right, but an impious act by his army brings down some Divine Wrath on them, and the Lord seems to remain on parliament's side when an untimely downpour souses his back-up plans. Charles also makes another poor decision over Scotland, sure that victory in England is within his grasp, while Jamie waits until midnight to grasp... yup, still that sort of story.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>August 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Luke stared incredulously at his father and his father's lover. He knew that the two were downright impossible at times, but this?</p><p>“A midnight swim?” he asked incredulously. <i>“Why?</i> I mean, I know that it has been hot lately, but what possessed you?”</p><p>His father shuddered beneath his blanket. Apparently it had not been that warm down by (and in) the river in the pitch dark. Jamie sniggered.</p><p>“Your father just wanted to enjoy some of life's simpler pleasures”, he told Luke. “Running an estate like this is stressful, and he decided to bathe in the river.”</p><p>“But why not do it during daytime when it is warmer?” Luke asked.</p><p>It took only a few seconds for him to wish that particular question unasked. The two men looked guiltily at each other, and the boy realized too late that they had done a whole lot more than just bathing.</p><p>“Seriously?” he exclaimed. “I mean, that water is cold enough during the day; I have bathed in it myself.”</p><p>“At least I kept your father warm!” Jamie grinned. <i>"Without and within!"</i></p><p>Luke just shook his head at the pair of them. Impossibly, the pair of them were getting worse!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>August 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“Luck is a thing in most battles”, Jamie said a few days later. “Although in this instance the king seems to have brought his ill luck down on his own head.”</p><p>“To be fair, he did not order his newly-arrived cannons to fire their first shot at Gloucester's mighty cathedral”, Stephen said. “Indeed he is not the sort to have countenanced such a thing. Unfortunately for him his soldiers were, and this is the consequence.”</p><p>“Also another reason why artillery is more trouble than it is worth”, Jamie said. “Heavy, slow, inaccurate and, as we have now seen, prone to explode when fired at a holy place on the Sabbath. Please make sure to read the terms and conditions carefully before usage as the manufacturer's guarantee may not quite cover everything.”</p><p>“The superstitious in the king's armies will take it as a sign of the Good Lord's disapproval”, Stephen said, “which will demoralize them. Let us hope that said disapproval continues long enough for Essex to get his men all the way across England to save Gloucester. Also I am worried about Lynn.”</p><p>"Who is she?" Jamie grinned. "Or he? Some secret lover of yours?"</p><p>Stephen shook his head at the teasing bastard. </p><p>"King's Lynn¹", he said. "Cromwell has written to me that they have declared for the king, and he is rushing to besiege them in case Newcastle drops his fruitless siege of Hull and races south. That would be a disaster!"</p><p>Jamie could see his point. The eastern counties of England were the bulwark of parliament's reduced kingdom; if the huge Royalist northern army fell on it now they might even threaten London.</p><p>"Cromwell will sort it", he said confidently. "He does most things."</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>August 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“I do not see it”, Stephen said as they lay in bed the next day.</p><p>“Perhaps I need to fuck you again until you do?” Jamie suggested with a grin.</p><p>“Hold hard!” Stephen said, nudging his lover with an elbow. “Have mercy on a broken nobleman!”</p><p>“Why, when I was the fellow who broke him last night?” Jamie said. <i>“Three times!”</i></p><p>Stephen blushed.</p><p>“I meant Montrose”, he said. “That he was not happy with Argyll and the Covenanters is one thing, and they were foolish indeed to try to win over such a principled man, but what can he actually do to stop them? Apart from what he is doing now and trying to convince the king to help him, in which he is surely bound to fail?”</p><p>Jamie nodded.</p><p>“The word is that the king believes once he has taken Gloucester, he will be able to march on London and conclude the war”, he said. “Then a pause over winter, and come spring he can deal with my countrymen. Or at least try to.”</p><p>“So he will not help Montrose in the meantime?” Stephen asked.</p><p>Jamie shook his head.</p><p>“He believes that idiot Hamilton when he assures him that my countrymen can be kept out of the war for the time being”, he said. “Once again his belief that the Good Lord will always let him win in the end – exploding cannons apart, that is – means he seeks to keep Scotland neutral for now, which means no help for my poor half-uncle. He is mistaken; negotiations between Pym and the Scots are going well from what Diana says.”</p><p>“So we may soon have another angle to this interminable conflict”, Stephen sighed. “Life is hard just now.”</p><p>He gasped as Jamie rolled on top of him.</p><p>“Aye”, the soldier grinned darkly. “And for you, my lord, it is about to get a whole lot harder!”</p><p>Stephen gulped.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>Some hours later found Luke glaring at his uncle.</p><p>“What?” Jamie asked with what was obviously fake innocence.</p><p>The boy gestured to where his father had fallen asleep at the dinner-table. Jamie snorted with laughter at the epic eye-roll they were both getting. That joke his lover sometimes made about one day being sexed to death – <i>the Winter Soldier was certainly working on it!</i></p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>September 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“Apparently the Good Lord's disapproval was not limited to striking down cannons pointed at his holy places.”</p><p>Stephen yawned and looked blearily at his lover. This hot weather was making many people slow down, but it seemed to be driving the soldier to become even more of a horn-dog than usual. This was the second time that the nobleman had found himself having to rest his eyes at the dinner-table, something that really did not merit that degree of smirking from the villain responsible. Or from some young personage who may or may not have been an offspring of his. Possibly.</p><p>“What?” he asked. He also suspected his son of tutting rather too loudly for some reason when he had met him while limping down the interminably long staircase, but then most things seemed loud today for some reason. The morning chorus outside his window had been excruciating; what had those bloody birds been about?</p><p>“As we thought, the king decided to try to undermine the walls of Gloucester rather than risk an assault”, Jamie said, looking far too pleased with himself for someone who.... all right, had arguably some cause. “He gave Massey a chance to surrender and told him that the mines would be blown the next day. Massey refused – and that same night they had the first heavy rain for weeks, flooding all the works. There is no way that they will be able to get them ready again before Essex gets there.”</p><p>“Have they not tried to stop him <i>en route?”</i> Stephen asked.</p><p>“This morning's letter reported that Rupert fell on them at one point”, Jamie grinned. “But he was beaten off. I opened it for you as I thought that you might not have the strength to hold the letter-opener.”</p><p>Stephen scowled. That was mean, if also arguably true. Unfortunately his son chose that moment to re-enter the room and caught the looks between the two men.</p><p>“Should I come back later?” he asked dryly.</p><p>“Just give us half an hour”, Jamie grinned. “I am a fast mover!”</p><p>Stephen groaned at his lover's attempt at wit. As if he could.... why was he looking at him like that?”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>Luke was quick, but he had to stop to lock the door and push the key under it. He was only two steps away when he heard the stifled groan. </p><p>He could not wait to be married and away from these two reprobates!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>September 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen did not look much better the following day, wincing every time he moved on his chair, and shuddering every time a certain soldier looked at him. A certain soldier whose smirk was downright annoying!</p><p>“There has been bad news from the West, sir”, Luke said, handing his father the letter and not rolling his eyes when he almost dropped it. “Prince Maurice has taken Exeter.”</p><p>“Not unsurprising”, Jamie said. “Like Bristol, a port that is up a long estuary which means that our Navy's ships could not reach it without being targeted from both shores. If anything it is good that the king sent his nephew there.”</p><p>“Why?” Luke asked.</p><p>“Because that leaves him less men at Gloucester”, Jamie said, “The same with Bideford on Devonshire's north coast; he would have done better to have put them to one side and waited until he had secured his main prize. Like with Bristol, a big or important place falling can often persuade those in charge of the smaller ones to just give up, as happened with most of Dorsetshire recently.”</p><p>“But not Massey”, Stephen said, yawning and therefore missing his son's disapproving look. “Essex must be most of the way there by now. The king cannot risk being caught between an army and a hostile town, so he will either have to risk an assault or withdraw.”</p><p>“This king does not do risks”, Jamie smiled. “He has God on his side – exploding cannons and sudden torrential downpours apart, that is!”</p><p>“Even those will not change his mind", Stephen sighed. “He apparently sees this whole conflict as God's punishment for his abandonment of an innocent man – Strafford – but of course he will triumph in the end. As he is reported as saying more than once, 'the Lord will not allow rebels and traitors to prosper'.”</p><p>“Unless he manages to secure victory this year or next”, Jamie said, “he may well find that the Lord has a rather different view on that.”</p><p>Stephen nodded, then yelped as his poor abused body registered its displeasure at his sudden movement. </p><p>“How long till your wedding-day, Luke?” Jamie asked brightly.</p><p>“Far too long!” Luke scowled. “Come to that, I wonder if my poor father will make it!”</p><p>Stephen blushed. Especially as he had been wondering much the same thing!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) King's Lynn, Norfolk. It had changed its name from Bishop's Lynn upon the Reformation when it had been arguably England's busiest port, but the recent rise of both London and the New World as well as the general mess on the Continent had led to a decline. The failure of Newcastle to support the Royalists there was one of the greatest 'what ifs' of the war; he could indeed have destroyed the Eastern Association had he gone south to assist the rising.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Underestimation</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The king retreats from Gloucester and the Earl of Essex relieves the city – but is this the success that it seems? Suddenly parliament's only functional army is threatened with being cut off as Prince Rupert rallies the Royalist forces and there is a critical engagement on the London road at Newbury. The survival of the Parliamentarian cause hangs in the balance.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>September 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>A couple of days later, Stephen had another letter from his future in-law.</p><p>“Cromwell says that Newcastle has taken the town of Beverley”, he said. “I suppose that that too falls into the category of being both good and bad news.”</p><p>Jamie nodded.</p><p>“The capital of the East Riding but only a small place”, he said. “Like with Bideford and Exeter, it draws troops away from where they would have been much better employed.”</p><p>“As well as keeping the pressure off Cromwell”, Stephen agreed. “He has re-established control in Lowestoft¹ but King's Lynn continues to hold out against him.”</p><p>He groaned as two strong arms enfolded him, and a hand slipped inside his shirt.</p><p>“Jamie!”</p><p>“What, my liege?” the soldier grinned. “It is two of the clock, we are neither of us needed on the estate today, and I am horny as hell!”</p><p>“Like that last one is news!” Stephen grumbled. “Oh God!”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>September 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Jamie grinned as Luke entered his lover's study and looked around the place.</p><p>“Your father is not hiding under the couch, if that is what you are thinking”, he smiled. “He is upstairs, still a-bed.”</p><p>Luke looked at the clock and sighed. Past ten in the morning. Honestly!</p><p>“There is news from Gloucester”, he said. “Or at least from Oxford; the king sent a messenger back to fetch him some more gunpowder, and he said that the siege has been lifted.”</p><p>To the boy's surprise, the soldier did not seem particularly pleased at the news.</p><p>“What is it?” Luke asked. </p><p>“I have been thinking”, Jamie said. "I fear the king's move to take on Gloucester rather than London may not have been folly as some people are saying.”</p><p>“How so?” the boy asked.</p><p>“Consider”, the soldier said. “The king knows that the army of Essex, for all that is a ramshackle affair, is really all that stands between him and London just now. Waller's shattered force is still regrouping after Roundway Down so they will not be in the field again for some months. If the king could defeat Essex then the road to the capital would be open.”</p><p>“You really think that he could take the capital?” Luke asked.</p><p>Jamie shook his head.</p><p>“The fortifications around it are too strong now”, he said, “so his best hope would be some sort of treachery from within. There is a small but significant Royalist presence in the city, and as the Hothams so nearly proved of late a few men in a key place can be critical. That is, I think, the king's plan, or at least the plan of some of his advisers. Lure Essex away from the capital, defeat him on ground of their choosing, then strike at a demoralized capital from both without and within. We can only hope that the earl has the sense to get his troops safely back home again.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>September 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“One step forward and two steps back”, Stephen sighed. “We have gotten supplies into Plymouth and disrupted the siege down there, but the king has finally managed to get a ceasefire with the Confederate Irish. Or a Cessation as he is calling it.”</p><p>“I am surprised that the rebels agreed to it”, Luke said. “Surely they hold the majority of the island now?”</p><p>“Almost certainly in area but, like the king in England, probably not in population or wealth”, his father said. “I suppose that they are thinking the king will strip their island of English troops to fight for him here, so that when the truce ends they will have an easy victory.”</p><p>“Will he and will they?” Luke asked.</p><p>“He will get what troops he can, for what little good they will do him”, Jamie said from where he was working on one of his carvings. He had taken up woodwork as a hobby a few months back 'because I am good at reducing things', as he had said when an unwise teenager had asked.</p><p>(The soldier privately wondered if training the young man up had been wise, given the murderous look that that had gotten him!).</p><p>“Why do you say that, sir?” Luke asked.</p><p>“I know that most of the troops being brought back are good English Protestants”, Jamie said, “but after the massacres over there one can hardly expect the people of England to differentiate between 'real' Irishmen and Englishmen back from Ireland. There are already reports of some Royalists refusing to serve under 'Irish' officers or 'those murdering Papists' as they call them. Plus there is the fact that we have the Navy which means those extra troops will have to be shipped over a few hundred at a time. But if Pym can bring my countrymen into the war as it seems he will, that is a large and professionally-led army which could could march over the Border and crush the Royalists in the north. Then come south to finish the king off, if he is not careful.”</p><p>“Unless Montrose succeeds in starting a Royalist uprising up there”, Stephen said. </p><p>His lover shook his head.</p><p>“He would need to be exceptionally lucky to do that”, he said. “He is our kin and I wish him well, but he is never going to find enough support to do anything against the Covenanters.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>Ah.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>September 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen heaved a big sigh of relief.</p><p>“What is it?” Luke asked.</p><p>“I was just thinking of Jamie being too tired tonight to....”</p><p>He stopped at the death-glare that he was getting from his son.</p><p>“Sorry”, he said insincerely. “I have had another letter from Cromwell. It is good news all round; Anne sends you a letter” – he handed it to his son – “and he has finally been able to crush the rising in King's Lynn. As we had hoped Newcastle decided to sit down before the greater if unattainable prize of Hull, more fool him.”</p><p>“And the king?” Luke asked, putting his letter away in his pocket.</p><p>“He was last reported to have drawn off towards Worcester”, Stephen said, “and Essex was moving in roughly the same direction as he was at Upton, which I think is about ten miles south of the city. He cannot surely be thinking of forcing an engagement even with the supplies he must have got from the king's abandoned camp at Gloucester. What is he playing at?”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>September 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>The answer to that question came very quickly. Jamie had ridden down to Oxford to pick up any news, then had headed west to see if he could find out where the two armies were. That he did not come back that night worried (terrified) Stephen and he barely slept, moving through the following day only half-awake. It looked like he was in for a second sleepless night, but shortly before midnight a wonderfully familiar figure staggered through the front door.</p><p>“I have a lot to tell you all”, Jamie yawned. “I need something to keep me awake though.”</p><p>“Just give us the result now and the details tomorrow”, Luke said. </p><p>“A draw”, the soldier said, staggering as the boy pulled his boots off. “The king has gone back to Oxford and Essex is headed to London.”</p><p>“I will see you both in the morning”, Luke smiled. “Goodnight, both.”</p><p>He bowed and left them. Stephen helped his soldier stagger up the stairs; the poor fellow had his eyes half-closed already. Luckily for all that muscle he was easy to handle and they were soon in their room.</p><p>“I really wish I had the energy to give you the thorough fucking you deserve, my love”, Jamie yawned. “But I want to tell you about the battle while I have consciousness.”</p><p>Stephen helped him out of the last of his clothes and into their bed, before shedding his own clothes and joining him.</p><p>“Go on, my love”, he said, gently kissing his lover on the nose.</p><p>“Sap!” Jamie muttered with a tired smile. “I ran into a friend of mine when I was overtaking the king's army after the battle. Charles Stuart had victory in his grasp, but once again he let it slip.”</p><p>“Essex's move on Upton was just a feint, and he got quite a lead on the king's men. But his troops were hungry, Rupert fell on them again by Aldbourne Chase on the Berkshire Downs, and the king beat him to the crossroads at Newbury by a few hours. Essex had to camp outside and fight his way through.”</p><p>“And he managed to do it?” Stephen asked, surprised.</p><p>“He had two advantages that proved to be key”, Jamie yawned. “The king was low on gunpowder yet declined his nephew's suggestion that they wait for more. Yet another stupid decision; Essex was hardly going anywhere! Worse, although the king's men had reconnoitred the battlefield that evening, they had somehow failed to secure one of the hills on its south-western flank. Our men were gobsmacked to find it empty, and got some of their guns up on it before daylight. Rupert's men tried to dislodge them but were just about beaten off.”</p><p>“More unnecessary deaths”, Stephen sighed.</p><p>“Including one of the best men on their side”, Jamie sighed. “I am afraid that Falkland committed suicide during the battle, deliberately riding into a group of musketeers with his sword raised. He was said to have been depressed at how this war seemed to be one without an end; I feared it might happen as I was told of his trying much the same during the siege at Gloucester.”</p><p>“Poor fellow”, Stephen sighed.</p><p>There was silence from a few inches away. His lover had finally succumbed to exhaustion, so Stephen pulled him close and sighed happily.</p><p>“I am still giving you that fucking tomorrow morning, by the way!” </p><p>The nobleman just shook his head. Like his lover would have the energy for that, even after a night's rest.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>September 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Some day, Stephen Roger Amerike would learn not to underestimate his Winter Soldier. </p><p>The morning after Jamie's return was, however, not that day! Which meant that the rest of the day was a write-off.</p><p>Score!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) A Suffolk town and a major fishing-port on the east coast. The rising was partly caused by its rivalry with nearby Parliamentarian Great Yarmouth, over the border into Norfolk.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. The Final Deal</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Stephen is even more of a wreck than usual after his lover has had his way with him (four times!), and when the nobleman finally does make it downstairs he is horrified to realize that a repeat performance is looming over the horizon. Young Edward Stark does not like his tutor, and is having his future mapped out for him. Also John Pym strikes a deal.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>September 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Luke felt quite entitled to roll his eyes when, three days after Jamie's return from Newbury, there was still a conspicuously empty place at the dinner-table.</p><p>“Is not my guardian joining us?” Edward asked as they all sat down.</p><p>“He is still indisposed, I am afraid”, Jamie said, pointedly not catching his almost-son's eye as he reached for the food. “That is why I ordered a cold collation today; I will take him some food up when we are done.”</p><p>Unlike my poor father, who is likely 'done' already! Luke thought wryly. Something all too certain from some soldier's annoying smirk, damn him!</p><p>“It is not anything serious, sir?” the boy asked.</p><p>“He just needs plenty of rest”, Jamie said placidly. “I will make sure that he gets it.”</p><p>Even with the straight face that he was keeping, Luke just knew that the soldier would indeed be making sure that his father got it. <i>And the rest!</i></p><p>His wedding and escape from this place still seemed a lifetime away!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>September 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>September was nearly done before a still shaking Stephen finally made it downstairs. Unfortunately his lover arriving home in a state of exhaustion had only made the post-journey sex even more intense than usual. Even his soft dressing-gown chafed against his skin, and as for clothes..... no. Just no!</p><p>“Good to see you up, my liege”, Jamie grinned far too brightly for this obscene hour of the day. “Some of us have been up for hours.”</p><p>“One of us is always 'up'!” Luke grumbled, “judging from what little is left of my father. He has to give me away in two weeks' time and I would quite like for him to be able to stand while doing it, thank you very much!”</p><p>“Not to worry”, Jamie grinned. “Besides, I always get emotional at weddings and such.”</p><p>Luke almost said what a good thing that was before he caught his father's face. It was a look of absolute terror!</p><p>“E.... e... emotional?” he gasped.</p><p>“A good wedding is like a good battle”, Jamie smiled. “In both cases, I always have plenty of energy to work off afterwards.”</p><p>Luke sighed. His poor father looked terrified!</p><p>“When you have both finished being your dreadful selves”, he said crossly, “Father had a letter this morning. There is some good news from London. Despite his declining health Mr. Pym has secured that deal with the Scots. They are calling it the Solemn League and Covenant.”</p><p>He handed the letter to the soldier – he seriously doubted whether his father had the wherewithal to hold it! – who read it and nodded.</p><p>“A necessary deal”, he said. “A fudge like all these things are; my countrymen are mistaken if they believe that their theological arguments can swing the English to accept Presbyterianism, but hopefully the arguments over that will not arise while the king remains strong.”</p><p>“You think that their army will prove decisive, sir?” Luke asked.</p><p>“Fairfax and his supporters are not that much weaker than Newcastle and his in Yorkshire”, Jamie said, “so throwing a large army onto the scales will surely win us the north unless Rupert dashes in to save the day for his uncle. But even he cannot be anywhere at once. No, it is the cultural thing that worries me.”</p><p>Luke looked at him in confusion.</p><p>“As I have said to your father, this civil war has largely been an English affair thus far”, Jamie explained, “On our own estate we have seen how badly some in the king's army have reacted to his bringing troops back from Ireland, even if they are really English troops just based there. I am also seeing some propaganda on our side that is targeting the strong Welsh and Cornish  presence in the king's armies. Bringing up the old Saxon versus Celt argument is the last thing we need now.”</p><p>“I think that the thing my father needs just now is his bed”, Luke said, gesturing to the chair where someone was looking fit to fall into his book.</p><p>“Good idea!” Jamie grinned.</p><p>“But not for that!” Luke said quickly, seeing the eager look on the soldier's face.</p><p>“Spoilsport!”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>October 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“This is another problem in this interminable contention”, Stephen said a few days later. “We are all going to have to live together once the fighting stops, but it seems to have only intensified rivalries up and down the country.”</p><p>“The town of Manchester?” Jamie guessed. </p><p>The nobleman nodded.</p><p>“The king's men were being supplied by Salford across the river, the two towns always having hated each other”, he said. “Before his defeat at Whalley the Earl of Derby tried to batter his way across the bridge between the two, but he was beaten back. I can hardly see those two towns getting on with each other any time in the next hundred years, can you?¹”</p><p>“The king made a dog's breakfast out of Newbury”, Jamie said, “and now he has had to pretty much go into winter quarters. True, we have had to abandon Reading but that is no loss; Berkshire is being ruined by this war with all the demands being made on it. Hopefully there will be little fighting until next spring, when my countrymen will rush to the rescue.”</p><p>“Meanwhile I have my own kilted Scottish warrior to hand”, Stephen smiled, “always there to keep me warm and for certain other things that...”</p><p>There was a pointed cough from behind the two men and Stephen jumped violently. Even more annoying, his lover did not.</p><p>“Hullo, Luke”, the soldier said affably. “I heard you coming in. Your father and I were just discussing clothes.”</p><p>“I was coming to ask you about that for the wedding”, Luke said testily, “and I heard just what 'clothes' you were discussing. Are you two trying to be the most embarrassing relatives on the whole damn planet?”</p><p>“Already won that award!” Jamie grinned.</p><p>Luke just sighed.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>October 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>What with everything else going on (and coming off!) in his life lately, Stephen had had little time to observe his young charge for whom he was covertly running the estate. Although he had noticed that the boy had been quiet even for him these past two days. He wondered why, and a seemingly odd question would give him the chance to find out.</p><p>“Sir”, the boy said, “I read of Prince Rupert at a place called Newport Paynel². They say that it is north of here.”</p><p>“About forty miles north-east”, Stephen said. “I marked it on my map yesterday, the prince has seized it in an attempt to cut London off from its bases in the Midlands.”</p><p>“I was wondering”, the boy said. “Why is it a port when it is not on the sea?”</p><p>Luckily Stephen knew the answer to that one.</p><p>“The original meaning of the word 'port' was a licensed trading place”, he explained. “They could be either inland or coastal; my brother Aidan has a schoolfriend of his who married and moved to Milborne Port, which is in the north of Dorsetshire so quite some miles from the coast.”</p><p>The boy nodded. A thought struck the nobleman.</p><p>“Why did you not ask Mr. Sergeant, your tutor?” he asked.</p><p>“I do not like him.”</p><p>Well, that was blunt. Stephen stared at the boy in surprise.</p><p>“May I ask why?” he asked carefully.</p><p>“He is creepy”, the boy said. “Thunor does not like him either.”</p><p>Now Stephen was even more surprised. His cousin Baldur had brought some of his family over two days ago and his eldest daughter was only eight, nearly five years the boy's junior. </p><p>“What does she not like about him?” Stephen pressed. The tutor was only a replacement as the boy's normal one had had to go to his home in Gloucestershire as he had feared for his family, living as they did on the outskirts of the recently besieged city.</p><p>“She thinks that he is up to no good”, the boy said. “She is probably right. She usually is, even if she is a pain!”</p><p>Stephen bit back a smile.</p><p>“Some young girls are”, he said.</p><p>“And she said that she will marry me when she reaches eighteen, so I am to wait for her”, the boy said blithely.</p><p>Stephen spluttered at that, but made a mental note to keep an eye on that tutor. And on that girl!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) Make that nearly four hundred and counting.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>2) Now Newport Pagnell. It lies just a few miles north of Watling Street, the old Roman road connecting London with the Midlands and central Wales, on the northern edge of the horror that is Milton Keynes. At the time of this story it was one of the largest towns in Buckinghamshire.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
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  </div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. The One With The Wedding</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Dubious dealings by an estate employee, possible sabotage in the Midlands, and a dark omen from nearby Oxford make for a turbulent autumn. Oliver Cromwell is there for the first major victory for parliament in the conflict and Luke becomes his son-in-law, finally married and able to leave both home and his terrible relatives.<br/>Er, about that.....</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>October 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“Well, I have lots of news from Oxford”, Jamie said as he came into the study.  “There is good, bad but not for us, and downright ugly!”</p><p>Stephen rolled his eyes at his lover.</p><p>“The good news first, then”, he said. </p><p>“I tracked a certain Mr. Septimus Sergeant from here to the usual barracks for Rupert's men”, Jamie grinned. “Most of them are up at Newport of course, but one of the few left behind is a certain Mr. Anthony Stark. And guess which officer our tutor went straight to on his arrival in the city?”</p><p>“I will take 'Grabby relatives whose surname rhymes with the word 'dark', for ten shillings'”, Stephen guessed.</p><p>“Congratulations, you have avoided the jeopardy of betrayal!” Jamie said. “Coins were exchanged; I did not challenge him as I was not sure how you might want to proceed.”</p><p>“With his immediate dismissal and a sharp letter to the prince about how his minions behave, for one thing”, Stephen said shortly.</p><p>“Very right and proper”, Jamie said. “Next, we have the bad news for, coincidentally, that self-same prince. The queen is less than pleased that he has attained such prominence at court and has been working to frustrate his plans in any way he can. He has sent frequent letters begging that his men at Newport be reinforced, but she has covertly delayed any such assistance.”</p><p>“Fool woman!” Stephen snorted. “Calling herself 'Her Majesty She-Generalissima' and then undermining her husband's war efforts because she is jealous of a potential rival.”</p><p>“Surely no-one at parliament seriously considers the Palatines as replacement for the Stuarts?” Jamie asked dubiously. “We know that Rupert's elder brother brother is only for us because we pay his pension, for all that he would love to become Charles the Second.”</p><p>“There are many in parliament who fear that the king is bringing up his own sons in his image”, Stephen said, “which would make securing peace with any of them difficult. Although I suppose that there is young Henry Stuart. And we have all seen that the king only honours agreements when he is compelled to at the point of a sword. I doubt many even at Westminster would consider a dynastic change but remember, Charles Louis is as yet unmarried. That leaves Rupert rather too close to the throne, at least for the queen's liking. Plus he is everything her husband is not; young, popular and highly able.”</p><p>“Which brings me to the ugly news”, Jamie sighed. “Diana asked me to make inquiries for her about certain rumours that were reaching her in London, so I did the rounds of the royal court. I am very much afraid that what she heard was true.”</p><p>“Which was?” Stephen asked.</p><p>“The king has resolved to win this war or die trying”, Jamie said. “He has told people that he will either be a Glorious King or a Patient Martyr. We are dealing with someone who is prepared to risk everything up to and including his own life to ensure that his dynasty survives – and that means a whole lot more bloodshed before this might be resolved, a resolution which cannot happen with this king. So with who, then?”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>October 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>It was just two days later and the three men set out for Ely where Luke was going to marry Anne Cromwell. Her father had written to Stephen expressing his thanks over his declining a dowry, although Anne had been given a bejewelled family bible that she had always liked. Brennus and Thor had moved into the Hall during their absence although once again Edward would be in nominal charge. The Viking God had said how much he had been looking forward to some peace and quiet now that they had a young charge to keep an eye on.</p><p>He might have been less keen had he seen what Stephen had seen, namely Jamie introducing his lover to those Special Boxes that they kept under their bed! The nobleman thought wryly that he might end up coming back from a wedding and having to attend his cousin's funeral!</p><p>“Or your own if I get too emotional!” Jamie said with a grin when he said that to him.</p><p>The nobleman shuddered in terror.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>October 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Near Bedford, Bedfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen had chosen two men trained in the use of the new flintlock guns and armed to go with them, which proved wise as on approaching Bedford they encountered a group of five or six men at the side of the road who looked hard at them but backed off when they saw all the guns levelled against them. Stephen would have liked to have had Fraser with him, but as some smirking junior steward had told him before leaving, he was 'temporarily out of commission' after some bastard soldier had loaned the Special Boxes to him as well!</p><p>The nobleman made a mental note to give Fraser an extra-long weekend off soon. That would stop his bastard of a subordinate from smirking so much in his presence!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>October 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Ely, Cambridgeshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>The party reached the cathedral city safely enough, although they had to wait for their host who had been made governor of the Isle¹ and was out on his duties. And they were more than surprised when he returned and greeted them while using a walking-stick.</p><p>“Only a temporary thing”, he grunted. “My own stupid fault; my horse was shot from underneath me at Winceby and I fell badly.”</p><p>“Winceby?” Stephen asked, confused.</p><p>“A battle and a big one”, Cromwell said. “I did have my secretary send you a letter but I suppose that it did not reach you in time. Yes, we were lucky up in Lindsey. Newcastle send a huge force into the county but it got split up, and our men ran into some of them at Winceby, near the town of Horncastle. We had roughly the same numbers² and it was late evening; Manchester did not want to attack as ever but I managed to persuade him and we made short work of them. Even better, I got word to Fairfax and he attacked his besiegers around Hull, driving them off.”</p><p>Stephen had mentioned to his lover that Cromwell likely got on badly with his superior the Earl of Manchester, despite their being distant relatives. Although the earl had reportedly helped Cromwell into his current position, there were rumours that he had been less than helpful over the soldier's financial and political difficulties the previous decade.</p><p>“That is excellent news”, Stephen said. “We must hold this part of the country before we can drive the king back elsewhere. We have a small piece of news for you too. Jamie went to look at Newport Paynel as we passed quite close to it and Rupert's men have been forced to retreat from it. Apparently the men and weapons they needed to hold its defences were not forthcoming from Oxford.”</p><p>“The Queen?” Cromwell asked dryly.</p><p>“The Queen”, Stephen agreed. “Rapidly becoming one of our best weapons!”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>October 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Ely, Cambridgeshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>After the wedding (at which Stephen did not cry, whatever anyone said), they were to spend another night in Ely before taking the happy couple back to Oxfordshire. After his recent victory Cromwell was loaning them a few of his men to escort them, and certainly not to make sure that his daughter did not 'seal the deal' with Luke before they reached their new house. Although Stephen wondered at his son shuddering like that as he spoke to his new father-in-law, considering how warm that autumn day was. Thankfully the balmy weather was continuing so the roads remained tolerable as they departed.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b> October 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Since they had no carts they were able to accomplish the journey in three days again, with stopovers at St. Neot's and Bletchley. The first passed uneventfully but there was news when they reached the second.</p><p>“Prince Rupert has bedded himself in at Towcester, north-west of here”, the innkeeper told Stephen as they sorted their rooms. Luke had been impressed with his new wife's horsemanship (horsewomanship?) although Stephen had caught a worried look on his face as Jamie had chatted to his new bride. But then his man was so handsome that.... that he did not need telling.</p><p>“He is doubtless sore after his failure to hold Newport”, Stephen said. “We will probably miss any men being sent to him on our way home, although we might change our route south of here and go via Winslow, just to be safe.”</p><p>He knew his lover well enough not to say anything when he caught the slightest of reactions. He trusted Jamie with his life.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b> October 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Near Newton Longville, Buckinghamshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>Only a few short miles into their journey they turned south on a road marked 'Whitchurch'.”</p><p>“Well?” Stephen asked.</p><p>“The bastard went straight to a gang of youths in his tavern and told them where we were headed”, Jamie growled. “So I used some of my less reputable skills and liberated his horde of coins from his study.”</p><p>“And the youths?” Stephen asked. </p><p>“They slipped out this morning”, Jamie said. “I asked around and was told that the main road runs through a wood by the Winslow turning, so they will have a pleasant day waiting there for nothing!”</p><p>“You are so clever, Mr. Buchanan!” Anne said.</p><p>Stephen felt quite entitled to exchange that eye-roll with his son.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>October 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>It was the day after their return to Stalwarton, having seen Anne and Luke settled into their new house. </p><p>“I would like to have gone round this morning”, Stephen admitted, “but the day after a married couple's first night – they deserve some privacy.”</p><p>His lover's silence was a little too intense. The nobleman looked at him sharply.</p><p>“What is it?” he demanded.</p><p>“I may have given Anne a few of my Continental tips as to how to do certain things”, Jamie grinned. “Even if she only got through half of them, I doubt that there is much left of Luke this morning!”</p><p>Stephen sighed. His lover was terrible!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>October 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“So”, Stephen grinned. “How is married life, son?”</p><p>“It is about to end when I am hung for murdering that bastard soldier of yours!” Luke grumbled. “Seriously, how did he find time for fighting and learning all those..... <i>things?</i> I thought Anne would be all inexperienced and we would.... well, that we would sort things out somehow. Instead I have been nearly broken thanks to that damn Jamie!”</p><p>“Always glad to oblige!” Jamie grinned from, Stephen noted, a safe distance. “At least thank me that I have not yet introduced Anne to those Special Boxes that explained why Thor was passed out when we returned.”</p><p>Stephen blushed fiercely.</p><p>“You bloody dare!” Luke hissed.</p><p>“And you are going to stop me how?” Jamie teased. “Limp after me and hope that if you scowl enough, I might implode?”</p><p>“Father! Stop him!”</p><p>“Sorry, son”, Stephen said. “He is pretty much unstoppable, my Winter Soldier.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b> November 1643</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Stalwarton, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND</b>
</p><p>“It is as I feared”, Jamie said a few days after Guy Fawkes's Night. “These news-sheets talk of 'the Irish' landing in Somerset where they mean the English troops being brought back from Ireland. This war is turning ugly.”</p><p>“Let us at least allow ourselves the distraction of the bonfire”, Stephen said. The traditional estate bonfire had had to be postponed by several days of rain, but thankfully today had been dry and the workers would enjoy the celebration of the fellow who had failed to blow up parliament. Although... no, no politics tonight.</p><p>“You mean let us enjoy watching the estate workers get free food and be thankful that they have such a good lord”, Jamie said, “even if he is living three hundred miles away and has his little brother running things for him.”</p><p>“Edward is looking forward to it”, Stephen said, “and it was his idea to hand out bags of coal to the workers as this year saw such a bumper harvest. The poor suffer in the bad times; it is only fair that they benefit in the good times.”</p><p>“You are becoming one of these strange people who believe in treating the lower orders well”, Jamie smiled. “Who are you, and what have you done with my 'Captain Amerike'?”</p><p>The nobleman swatted at him, but missed.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) The Isle of Ely, an area to the north of Cambridge, only a county in its own right after 1889. The Fens were then being drained but Ely had originally been on a seasonal island; ironically the name Ely means 'island of eels'.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>2) Cromwell is being a tad disingenuous here. His parliamentarian force outnumbered the Royalists by around 5,000 to 3,000. They killed around 200 and captured some 800 men (i.e. overall one-third of the enemy forces) and it was the first large victory for parliament in the conflict.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXLIII</p>
</div>
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